Spanky

I figured this would be the best place to put this thread because in a sense it is related to the bible and its flood story.
My neighbor today pointed out that there were several flood stories in the myths of different cultures; even in the cultures of the Americas. This aroused my curiosity. I thought the flood was limited to the Samarians, Hebrews, etc, not the Mayans, Aztecs, etc. So, as soon as I got home I googled it and found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deluge_(mythology))

Maybe this is old news to all of you, but, I was wondering about this. It seems odd that these many cultures on different continents would have, though diverse, a myth of a great flood. They didn't have the internet back then.

How does one explain this?
By no means am I saying I believe in a flood, but I do find it strange that there are so many cultures.
Any thoughts?
Also, I had to leave when my neighbor said that there was scientific proof for the flood. Maybe I'll save that for Evo/Crea.
Any thoughts? Any theories, explenations how this might have travelled transatlantic?

Spanky

This is one answer to my question! Just as I suspected, once the influence of x-ianity travelled o'here they influenced even the indiginous peoples writings. But what about the others.
I look forward to your thoughts!

Amaleq13

Most civilizations were established near water and flooding is an incredibly common occurrence all around the globe. The stories actual differ widely in detail with only two elements in common: 1) at least one survivor 2) lots of water.

The folks in E/C will certainly help you to attempt to disabuse your neighbor of his misconceptions because the actual scientific evidence clearly denies any global flood.

I really think you'll get want you want over there because what you're talking about has less to do with the Bible story than the scientific evidence.

Here, you will obtain information about the earlier Great Flood myth(s) that likely inspired the biblical version.

If you want the thread to follow that direction, it should stay but, if you want the science stuff, I'll ship you over to E/C.

Spanky

I want it to stay in this forum. The Wiki-pedia article has a nice little theory of how this many myths could have came about. But there seems to be a lot of scholarly thinking people in this forum so I am curious to know what others know on this subject. Especially the reason for transcontinental similarities!

GakuseiDon

My personal theory: people in ancient times found fossiled seashells and fish on tops of mountains (due to tectonic plate movements) so assumed that the mountains must have been underwater at some stage.

In the same vein: they also came across fossiled dinosaur bones, and from this created the legends of dragons, leviathan, etc.

CaliNORML

In the "scab lands" of middle America there is proof of many floods over the years, all those boulders throughout Arizona were once part of a, icedam near Montana and Idaho.

Recent years have shown Ice dams breaking and totally wiping out many areas.

In the science I could see a glacier pushing into the high mountains near Mount Ararat and causing an ice dam that would have flooded that entire area. The one in America was said to be 900 feet tall and miles wide.

Here is the link to that story, Megaflood done by PBS and NOVA.

CLICK HERE

KMS

KMS

yalla

The indigenous peope of northern tropical Australia have some stories that incorporate flooding.
That could be because the northern tropical part of Australia tends to have floods every year [ it's called "the wet'']!

Tigers!

If all these stories have items in common viz. 1 or few survivors, a boat being built, animals taken on board etc: then the chances of them all referring to a localised flood would be rather coincedental.
I thought that it had noted that some of these stories were written before missionaries arrived.

yalla

Oh and of course the Australian stories would pre-date the Noah story by tens of thousands of years so if there is any borrowing it would have to be from the southern hemisphere to the mid-east.
Several of these stories are illustrated in cave paintings and dated 10,000's of years...I don't know if floods are specifically mentioned but given the seasonal flooding that occurs I wouldn't be surprised if they are.

David B

There's a flood myth among Amerindians of the NW. There was a big tsunami there 300 years ago.

David B