by truthseeker 44 Replies latest jw friends
The craniel capacity for the Meganthrupus sure looks pretty small. Those really smart demons had some pretty damn dumb offspring.
http://www.evolutionnyc.com/IBS/SimpleCat/Product/asp/product-id/892385.html
For those of you who are new to evolutionary thought -- craniel capacity is directly proportional to intelligence. Why would super-powerful spirit creatures who mate with normal humans produce children with a brain capicity that is not far above chimpanzees?
Bradley
The craniel capacity for the Meganthrupus sure looks pretty small. Those really smart demons had some pretty damn dumb offspring.
http://www.evolutionnyc.com/IBS/SimpleCat/Product/asp/product-id/892385.html
For those of you who are new to evolutionary thought -- craniel capacity is directly proportional to intelligence. Why would super-powerful spirit creatures who mate with normal humans produce children with a brain capicity that is not far above chimpanzees?
Bradley
The Nephilim episode in Genesis likely had nothing to do with the Flood originally. There is some textual evidence that the Flood story was added later to J's primeval narrative, and other Pentateuchal allusions show the Nephilim and Rephaim to be alive and well in the days of Moses. One mention of them in Baruch suggests that they died out not because of the Flood, but through the Israelite's conquest of Canaan. We thus encounter such Rephaim giants as Og, king of Bashan, and Rephaim giants also turn up in the days of David, such as Saph, Goliath, and others (cf. 2 Samuel 21). I seriously doubt that the pre-Israelite inhabitants (e.g. the Rephaim, Nephilim, Emim, Zamzummim, Zuzim, Anakim, and other -im peoples) of Canaan were actually giants, and archaeological excavations of Levantine sites has surely not substantiated the rather late Israelite and Jewish belief that the former inhabitants of the land before them were giants (or included giant peoples). What we are really dealing with is folklore and mythology. Consider that "Rephaim" is also the word for the ghosts of dead ancestor kings in Sheol, and the Phoenicians and Canaanites believed that the most ancient Rephaim in the underworld were once the famed kings and heroes of old. Consider also that the Rephaim king Og, king of Bashan and specifically the cities of Ashtaroth and Edrei, is exactly analoguous to the Canaanite god Rapiu/Rapha (the god of the underworld and leader of the Rephaim) whose holy cities were the very same Ashtaroth and Edrei in Bashan (the modern town of Rafeh in Syria still bears his name!). And consider too that the analoguous god Molech, also believed to be the leader of the dead in the underworld, was worshipped by the southern Judahites in valleys near Jerusalem traditionally associated with the underworld -- Hinnom (Gehenna) and the Valley of the Rephaim. Thus, the Israelite belief in the Rephaim and the Nephilim draw on older mythological motifs that derive from the Canaanites that came before them. The original idea is likely preserved in such works as Philo of Byblos' Phoenician History, which describe the gods as coming to earth to intermarry with mortals and to teach them the secrets of civilization. This tallies with the Sumerian myths of the akpallu, and also with later Jewish legends as 1 Enoch. The Hebrews historicized the Nephilim and Rephaim as the inhabitants of the land that preceded them. The earlier Canaanites historicized the Rephaim as the Didanite ancestors of the Amorite kings. And though no documentary material survives, it is quite likely that the Amorites and Didanites historicized the Rephaim (or more specifically, the ancestor spirits associated with the god Malik = later Molech) as a still earlier dimly-remembered people. It seems that as history fades away into legend, what is dimly recalled merges with traditional mythic motifs of the fantastic founders of civilization.
Here is my thread that goes into this in detail:
Leolaila, your response was way too scholarly. That doesn't cut it!
B.
Ah yes! Biblical biology! Now angels can successfully breed with naughty OT ladies. Anyone ever see separate species successfully breed? By definition, angels are human, saintly characters who were spiritual giants and leaders of men.....er women! Pro bably Morman precursors or such..
carmel balancing the Leo act
Apparently, the NT writers never thought much about biology. Jude 6-7 specifically refers to those who lusted after "different flesh" (heteros sarkos) as the angels lusting after human women and the men of Sodom and Gomorrah lusting after angels. So angels have flesh? We may also note in 1 Corinthians 15:39-44: "Not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for human beings, another kind of flesh for animals, another kind of flesh for birds, and another for fish. There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies .... If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one". I think tho in practice, flesh (sarkos) is sharply distinguished from spirit (pneuma). I don't think it's an issue that was really explicitly spelled out, exactly what kind of corporeality the angels had. Did they take on human flesh, were they incarnated, did they only appear in human form, etc. It apparently wasn't an issue that bothered them much. Without biology, why would it?
I discovered that nephilim exist current day, many years ago. I have in-laws.
LOL @ steve.
I saw a thing on the Discovery Channel or some such cable station that talked about the unusually tall skelton's found in caves that were carbon dated back to right around Noah's day. (The first thing I thought was how in the world did they trace Red Skelton's ancestry that far back? JK) I think they called them some kind of Neandertal Man, but the first thing I thought of was the Nephilim. I don't know much more about it, tho.
Corvin
The Discovery channel is so aggravating to me. They air a lot of programs that walk the fine-line between science and pseudoscience. But, they have to -- that's what the public wants and buys.
I challenge anyone who believes this to provide some type of documentation showing the actual height, skelatal features (inluding craniel capacity) as well as a scientific dating of the remains.
Bradley
I was the only student in the history of my Junior High school to get consistent A+ grades in science class (late 1960')
Now thanks to the Watchtower cult I'm lost in limbo and I don't know what to think....
