{"id":26099,"date":"2014-12-11T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=26099"},"modified":"2014-12-11T10:00:03","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T15:00:03","slug":"parallelomania-and-mythicist-flood-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2014\/12\/parallelomania-and-mythicist-flood-stories.html","title":{"rendered":"Parallelomania and Mythicist Flood Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It struck me recently that the way many mythicists view Jesus in relation to other savior figures, is akin to how young-earth creationists view flood stories from around the world. The latter consider that all of the stories are copies from and reflect knowledge of a historical ancient flood. Someone with a tiny bit of skepticism might suggest that the stories are copies, but that doesn\u2019t prove the historicity of a great flood \u2013 much as mythicists suggest that details about Jesus might be borrowed from other figures, and they then make lists of parallels which exaggerate and sometimes fabricate similarities. But a truly critical investigation would consider the possibility that there is no need for borrowing, that human experience of flooding on a local scale, and common human hopes for those they consider saviors, could have given rise to the disparate stories we find.<\/p>\n

Not everything that is similar is related.<\/p>\n

When mythicists suggest that Jesus is depicted with characteristics that are borrowed from other savior figures, thinking that this is them being skeptical with respect to Christianity, I want to insist that there is a need to be even more critical and skeptical. Humans attribute many of the same things to those figures they revere, and from whom they hope for something. In some cases there may be direct borrowing, but not all. Is your aim to\u00a0follow the trail of evidence and to apply historical tools of inquiry, or is your aim to adopt the view that you consider to be most detrimental to Christianity, regardless of whether the evidence favors it?<\/p>\n

In some cases there is good reason to conclude that deliberate borrowing has taken place.\u00a0The Genesis account is clearly very<\/em>\u00a0closely related to earlier Mesopotamian stories.\u00a0The former seems to most scholars to be a deliberate attempt to rework an existing flood tradition, perhaps in order to give it what we might call a monotheistic twist. But a look at the details of supposed parallels from further afield\u00a0often suggests that, in fact, the only common element is flooding, which doesn\u2019t require direct borrowing. And in some cases the additional similarities may be the result of contact with the Biblical material, for instance when brought by missionaries. Dates of sources, extent of similarity on specific details, and likelihood of direction of borrowing all need to be considered.<\/p>\n

A close look at either the world\u2019s flood stories touted by creationists, or the world\u2019s savior stories touted by mythicists, suggests that they are not all genetically related, and that we need to pay close attention to their details in order to determine where there is evidence of direct borrowing,\u00a0and where there probably isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It struck me recently that the way many mythicists view Jesus in relation to other savior figures, is akin to how young-earth creationists view flood stories from around the world. The latter consider that all of the stories are copies from and reflect knowledge of a historical ancient flood. 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