Dan –
I think I’d like to begin with the origins of the earliest known organized religion, the ancient Sumerians. It’s my impression that you believe all ancient gods are of man’s imagining, but not only is that theory not evidenced by the data, the available data in some ways contradicts such a theory.
No, I’m not going to argue for “Sumerian ancient astronauts”. I guess that is one possible explanation for the anomalies associated with humanity’s leap of civilization, but there’s really not any hard evidence to support that theory, either (not a single hubcap), and there IS evidence which, IMO, might contradict it. For example, the SumeroBabylonian astrolabe evidences no knowledge of the outer planets or knowledge which could not have been obtained from earthly observations. If we’re talking ancient astronauts, per the usual ancient astronaut theories, wouldn’t the Sumerians have likely had access to better knowledge of the cosmos?
However, more and more mainstream researchers are expressing puzzlement about the ancient leap of civilization (a.k.a. urban revolution) with the sudden appearance, from out of nowhere (no transition layers, no footprints), of very smart and powerful beings, known as “gods”, along with suddenly-smart humans and high civilization. The high civilizations of Sumeria (Mesopotamia), Egypt and the Indus Valley appeared suddenly in co-existence, complete with a triangle sea trade going back as far as the earliest cuneiform records. The oldest discovered cuneiform tablets are trade inventories, evidencing not only an established triangle trade but also the harvesting of natural resources from distant regions (for example, South Africa, the Caucasus Mts), especially minerals.
Germany’s Max Planck Institute is supporting a multidisciplinary team to begin back at “Square One” in ancient Mesopotamia, to see if earlier scholars and researchers may have mis-stepped, since none of the anticipated data to fill in the “anomaly holes” has appeared after over 100 years of digging. Not one shred of explanatory data (for the sudden appearance of high civilization). Nothing. Our present, standard theories of the origins of the great leap of civilization simply can not adequately explain the available data, so the German team is slowly back-tracking to be certain nothing critical was overlooked.
One of the most difficult anomalies to explain is the math. Transition layers go from one to one bead correspondence to sticks serving as 10-markers (10 ones) to cuneiform tablets with sexagesimal (base 60) algebraic and quadratic equations. This is abnormal. Very abnormal. It requires an explanation which so far has not been forthcoming. Of course, occasionally someone will offer a personal explanation for the leap of math, but no theories have been even close to universally accepted. For further explanation of the SumeroBabylonian math problem, you might start with the foundational work of Dr. Otto Neugebauer, but even a Wikipedia article on Babylonian math may suffice.
The purpose of the above was to argue that we do not have sufficient knowledge nor understanding of the origins of the ancient Sumerian (and Egyptian and Indus Valley) civilizations, nor their gods, to declare that the gods were human inventions – in fact, quite a bit of the evidence we have seems to be arguing against that theory. Our standard cultural anthropology evolutionary theories have failed in the face of the evidence, and new theories and understandings are needed. What those understandings and theories will turn out to be will depend on the data that is uncovered; there is no consensus in any direction as of yet, at least none that I am aware of, including no consensus that the ancient gods were inventions of men. That would be our usual explanation, but, again, the data in this case does not support the usual explanation.
This is my first point of debate, that a reasonable person cannot put forth as absolute truth, or even highly probable truth, ANY theory of the origins of the ancient Sumerian (or Indus Valley or Egyptian) gods, because there is not enough data to reasonably support any theory, and there is plenty of data which contradicts the usual “Ockham’s Razor” invention-of-man explanation.
I’m focusing on Sumerian mythos (vs Indus Valley or Egyptian) because the Sumerian mythos is the primary origin of early Judaism. To go from the Sumerians to ancient Christianity, one can easily track Judaism from the first Semitic peoples in Mesopotamia who interacted with Sumerians (Akkadians and Assyrians – Sumerians were non-Semitic) on through the West Semitic tribes of the Levant, their languages and gods, including the Hebrew god(s) of the Old Testament.
The decline and corruption of the Sumerian civilization began around 2000 BC, perhaps earlier, with the Third Fall of the city of Ur. Per Old Testament chronology, this could coincide time-wise (there’s not a consensus as to exactly when Abraham came to the Levant) with Abraham’s journey from Ur. Historical research tells us that there was indisputably a tribe of Hebrews among the West Semitic tribes in the Levant, and the Old Testament seems to be a mixture of sometimes accurate chronology of that tribe, the history of the Hebrews and other peoples of the Levant, mixed with sometimes heavy editing of Levantine history (obviously to promote Hebrew greatness and Hebrew legends), with convoluted remnants of ancient Sumerian gods.
Careful text evaluation of the old testament seems to show three versions of the ancient Hebrew high god, one of them (Yahweh) a typical West Semitic storm god. BUT ALSO, and this is important, the Old Testament contains some fairly pristine, albeit redacted, ancient SumeroBabylonian mythos (especially Genesis 1-11) which was adopted during the Hebrews’ Babylonian captivity (6th century, BC) – for example, the flood story of ancient Sumeria, adapted to fit the ever-evolving Hebrew high god. These myths can be and have been compared with older SumeroBabylonian cuneiform versions. The Hebrews were probably henotheistic (believed there were many gods, though they only worshipped one god) until the return from the Babylonian captivity and building of the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem, which is the true beginning of Judaism.
So this post roughly covers the history of JudeoChristianity’s origins up to the inter-testamental period (?350-0 BC?). Influences on Christianity other than Mesopotamian and Levantine may be discussed later, as indicated. For my defense of the reasonableness of Christianity, it is simply important to be aware of the still unknown origins of Sumerian mythos, as recently evidenced by archaeological finds, as described by Greek historians, and as reflected in parts of the Old Testament. It is important to recognize that not even high scholars are of a consensus that the ancient Sumerian gods were man-made imaginings, because these usual theories have failed in the face of the evidence, and that there are a number of anomalies which any reasonable person would admit require further explanation.
rebecca