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From: clewis@spectrix.UUCP
Newsgroups: talk.origins,talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Creation, Evolution, and Flood
Message-ID: <136@spectrix.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Sep-86 16:08:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: spectrix.136
Posted: Fri Sep 19 16:08:12 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Sep-86 00:24:37 EDT
References: <203@BMS-AT.UUCP> <723@ihlpf.UUCP> <349@aw.sei.cmu.edu.sei.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: clewis@.UUCP (Chris Lewis)
Organization: Spectrix Microsystems Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lines: 55
Xref: utcs talk.origins:40 talk.religion.misc:85

In article <349@aw.sei.cmu.edu> firth@bd.sei.cmu.edu.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE) writes:

>Sorry, I don't see how the explosion of Thera
>could have caused the 'Biblical' flood.  The
>flood story we have in Genesis is almost certainly
>copied from the same source as the one in the
>Epic of Gilgamesh.  Now Thera blew her top around
>1450 BC.  And, although the version you usually
>find is the Akkadian translation (ca 800 BC) the
>original story was almost certainly Sumerian,
>and probably dates to before 2000BC.  So the
>story came first.

Actually, the way I heard it originally was that Thera can be used
for explaining the "parting of the Red Sea".  According to what I remember:

	- The word for "Red" is the same as "Reed" in Hebrew (I think, it
	  could have been some other language).
	- There is (was?) a small body of water in the area
	  called the "Reed Sea" which has (had?) a partially submerged
	  ridge across it.
	- The tidal surge from Thera could have uncovered the ridge
	  long enough for people to cross it. (Kinda like the movies
	  taken of a harbor during the Alaskan earthquake).  Wouldn't
	  have had much time tho...

Read this a long time ago, though.  May be a complete crock.  Might even have
been Velikovsky... (sigh...)

>Incidentally, I believe the current date for the
>end of the Minoan II period is well after 1450BC,
>so thera wasn't responsible for the destruction
>of Knossos either.

It certainly was responsible for destroying whatever civilization
lived on the island (it's called Santorini now isn't it?  Are
Santorini and Knossos the same place?) - it blew pretty well the whole 
island out of the water.  It was an order of magnitude or two so more 
powerful than the St. Helen's explosion, and more powerful than Krakatoa.  
The tsunami would have completely anihilated everything and everybody within 
a 10's of mile (or more) radius.

Question: one of the theories being bandied about is the possibility
that the Mediteranean may have been dry at one point (straits of
Gibralter being closed), and an earthquake or other landslip at one 
point would have punctured the "wall" at Gibralter and the Atlantic 
filled the Mediteranean in.  

Anybody know what the conjectured date for this is?  Could this have been 
"remembered" somehow and become the basis for a lot of similar of 
legends? (Mu, Atlantis, the Flood, Gilgamesh etc.)?
-- 
Chris Lewis
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