My primary source for Noah's life is actually the Epic of Gilgamesh; given the biases of the Christian Bible I am very wary of biblical evidence. The Gilgamesh, however, insinuates that Noah was immortal - an easy mistake to make for commentators on the life of a 900 year old man - but I hold this to be empirically false based on the fact that he is not known to be alive today.
So... 1) Your source doesn't confirm your thesis that Noah lived 900 years. 2) Your source attributes long life to a single, now forever lost, plant. 3) Your source is a myth.
My source corroborates the thesis (not
my thesis; I couched the proposition with the qualifier "reportedly") that Noah lived
for a long time.
The
Gilgamesh does not postulate that Noah attained immortality using the magic plant. It seems you are poorly read, or forgetful.
What is your evidence that
Gilgamesh is not a historical document? As far as Noah's biographical details go, it can be cross-referenced against the Epic of
Atrahasis, which reports similar events.
LOL
Talk about trying to cover up the fact that Christianity is actually a plagiarism of other religions. At best this is a poor attempt by Christians to claim all religions are that of Christianity lol. And you clearly show your degree of delusion here.
I specifically said that I was sceptical of Biblical evidence because of the Bible's theological biases - it was for this precise reason that I cited
Gilgamesh as a more reliable document. You do not appear to have been reading the thread very carefully! The post you quoted is not "an attempt by Christians" to do anything, since there is only one of me, and I am not a Christian.
I am very sceptical of the notion that people in the ancient world lived shorter lives than those in modernity. What do the proponents of this modern longevity theory make of Noah, who reportedly lived for some nine centuries in spite of his reckless, hedonistic lifestyle?
There are so many things that are plainly wrong in this short paragraph.
- After all those times that someone doubted the atheist credentials of the FE'rs and we were all assured that FE'rs are really atheists (and no FE'r said anything about being theist), now you are talking about Noah?
Is there some great atheist ordinance which proclaims "if you are an atheist, you shall not talk about Noah"? I am an atheist, and I am talking about Noah.
- And then, we are not talking about Noah, but Gilgamesh, as if they were the same person. And there is no explanation whatsoever as to why the two myths (of Noah and of Gilgamesh) are clearly different in key aspects.
We are not talking about Gilgamesh, catch up. We are talking about Ut'Naishtim (Noah) as he is described in the
Epic of Gilgamesh. Have you actually read the
Epic of Gilgamesh? You haven't, have you?
- Also, the whole idea of longevity of a whole species is referred to the longevity of either Noah or Gilgamesh, and at least Gilgamesh is mentioned as an immortal being.
Again, we are talking about Noah, not Gilgamesh.
- And further, the discussion is moved to the times where no historians existed, not to mention statistics experts. And meanwhile, the recent history, including the last two centuries, when careful statistical information was compiled, is ignored.
Historians manifestly existed, otherwise the authorship of historical texts such as the
Epic of Gilgamesh is inexplicable.
- Also, the numeric information on the Bible is considered metaphorical, not numerically exact, by even the most traditional priests. Only a few fanatics consider the Bible as literally exact.
That's good, because I am not, nor have I been, citing the Bible as my primary source of evidence.
- The same conditions that reduced longevity in past centuries are occurring even now in Africa and other places
Major factors which seem to be reducing longevity in Africa which I can think of are widespread civil war, famine and the spread of AIDS. The ancient Babylonians did not face these phenomena in any great or sustained amount that I know of.
Nobody wants to know what you believe. There is evidence to the contrary.
Nobody is forcing you to read my proclamations!