Atheists and Liberals: Confirming the Bible?
When I was a theology student my professor of Old Testament studies was a liberal feminist who spent most of her time trying to prove that the Biblical stories were copied from other older literature of ancient cultures such as the Babylonians and Sumerians. The argument was that Moses and others plagiarized the most believable parts of these stories and created the Jewish version.
In a recent discussion on a popular atheist YouTube channel I was given the same arguments from a person who thought I had no idea of the existence of ancient texts and gave me a list of atheist and liberal articles to read. He also insisted that the Ten Commandments were simply copied from the Code of Hammurabi, a Babylonian code written approximately 400 years prior to the Book of Exodus in the Bible.
In this video/article I want to briefly examine some of these texts and argue that both liberal theologians and atheists have unwittingly confirmed the Biblical narrative rather than destroyed its authenticity and authority. The fundamental questions are these.
1. If there was a global flood perhaps 5-6000 yrs ago and all but eight people survived, and all of these ancient cultures developed from Noah’s sons as the Bible states, then would we expect to find very similar ideas which were passed down orally prior to written texts.
2. Are written codes for the orderly functioning of societies copied from a primal source or are these found in all civilizations simply because every society needs them to function?
With these questions in mind, let’s begin with the earliest stories of Creation.
I. Creation stories/myths
One of the most striking differences between Mesopotamian creation myths and the Bible is polytheism. Ancient Sumerian and Babylonian texts speak of wars between various gods whereas the Bible is monotheistic.
One of the oldest creation stories is known as Enuma Elish which was composed around 1100-1200BC. According to Biblical chronology, and the date of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, Moses lived and wrote between 1390 and 1270 BC, a similar and likely earlier date to Enuma Elish.
In Enuma Elish we have chaotic waters and the god Marduk defeating a chaos serpent creature (Tiamut). The world is formed from half of Tiamut’s body and human beings created from the blood of a defeated god to serve the gods. But despite these ideas, consider the following similarities.
It seems obvious that, apart from the difference of one or more gods, these accounts are very similar and the conclusion we can draw is that both used a common source. Consider these similarities of Genesis with other ancient cultures. In Genesis God creates by speaking, ‘Let there be’. In Egyptian tradition, Ptah creates through intellect and speech.
In the Bible, the Garden of Eden is a paradise with the tree of life and tree of knowledge. Humans are innocent, a serpent tempts them, they lose immortality, they gain knowledge and become mortal.
In Mesopotamian myths, gods live in lush, divine gardens. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh searches for a plant that grants eternal life but a serpent comes and steals it. In the Myth of Adapa, a human is offered divine food which can give immortality, but he refuses to eat it because of a divine deception and remains mortal.
II. Flood Narratives.
The Biblical narrative of the flood in Genesis 6 begins with the statement that the ‘sons of God took the daughters of men and produced children with them’. The term ‘sons of God’ refers to angels, and in this case, fallen angels. They are called the ‘Nephilim’ and in the Greek version simply ‘giants’. There are approximately 45 references to giants in the Bible, and in the flood narrative, they are responsible for corrupting humankind to such a degree that ‘every thought of the human heart was only evil all of the time’ (Genesis 6:7). This statement is fundamentally a description of the power of the demonic, a state of being in which righteousness has been completely overrun with evil (Genesis 6:11-12). The Bible gives details about how this procreation was possible, its effects on humanity, both before and after the flood. See my series on the Nephilim on this website.
Noah, who is said to be a righteous man among his generation, is warned to build the ark, is given precise instructions and over the next 100 years he and his sons build this large boat. The flood came, the ark was afloat for 150 days. It finally comes to rest on Mount Ararat, Noah sends out a raven, then a dove, and finally another dove which returned with a leaf in its beak.
The Epic of Gilgamesh originates from Sumerian poems around 2000BC. The first Babylonian version was completed around 1800BC and compiled by the scribe Sin-leqi-unninni during the Middle Babylonian period. It speaks of semi divine Sumerian kings who lived for thousands of years prior to the flood, very similar to the Biblical narrative regarding the Nephilim. In the Gilgamesh story the god Enki warns Utnapishtim that the other gods are going to destroy the world through a flood.
He is instructed to build a huge boat with several decks, to seal it with pitch and bring on board seeds and all living creatures along with his family. The flood comes, tearing the world apart. After the rains stop he sends out a dove which returned, then a swallow, and finally a raven which did not return, indicating the waters had receded. The boat came to rest on Mount Nimush and he left the boat and made a sacrifice to the gods.
For anyone familiar with the Biblical narrative, it is obvious that the Bible and Epic come from the same source material. But what about global flood narratives in other cultures?
1. Greek. In Hesiod’s works the ‘Ages of Man’ he writes of human like gods with long lives, a gradual decline into extreme violence and corruption and Zeus destroying humanity with a flood. Only Deucalion and Pyrrha survive. Plato also writes of god-human hybrids prior to a flood triggered by human wickedness.
2. Hindu Puranas and Vedas. Hindu texts mention a great flood involving Manu, and the Vedas mention giants who reigned after the flood, creatures of supernatural power.
3. In Chinese tradition there is the great flood associated with Yu the Great which devastated all of early civilization.
4. Similar stories are found in Norse, Native American, Aztec and Mayan cultures.
It is estimated that there are over 200 global flood stories in as many cultures around the world. The majority of these mention god like creatures ruling prior to the flood, the development of wickedness and destruction by a god or gods. We will discuss the implications of this shortly.
III. What about legal codes?
The claim that the Ten Commandments were copied from the Code of Hammurabi is a very shallow assumption. The Code of Hammurabi was compiled around 1750 BC and contains 282 laws covering property, trade, family matters, crimes, and punishments. The Mosaic Law contains 613 laws, many of which have no corresponding similarity or emphasis to Hammurabi’s Code. The difference between the two, in simple terms, is this. Hammurabi’s Code, like the written or unwritten codes of almost every functioning society, both ancient and modern, lays down laws for the peaceful cohabitation of people and proper administration of justice.
The Mosaic Law has all of these, however the emphasis is on the nation of Israel’s unique relationship with God and separation of Israel with polytheistic nations, hence the extra hundreds of laws specific to Israel.
In brief, most of corresponding laws of the Code of Hammurabi and the Ten Commandments of the Bible are found in countless cultures around the world, for without them, civil societies simply cannot function. Laws against murder, stealing, adultery, giving false witness, honoring parents, and dealing with disputes are universal and this fact is indisputable, even among cultures who presumably had no direct contact. E.g, Chinese Confucian traditions, Ancient India in Hindu and Buddhist ethics, the Dharma and Five Precepts, Ancient Greek philosophy and civic law, Indigenous North American traditions such as the Great Law of Peace, Ancient Egyptians, the concept of Kapu in Polynesian cultures, etc.
Bottom line. Although many cultures had specific laws related to their gods, such as the Egyptians, Norsemen, Jews, Hindus etc, all had basic regulations for human behavior and the proper administration of justice. Therefore, it is not a question of who copied who, but rather a recognition of the human condition, the fact that human beings throughout history, are prone, and even inclined to murder, stealing, adultery, lying and coveting what we do not have. Without civil laws, and systems of justice, societies simply fall into chaos.
IV. Evaluating the evidence.
When it comes to evaluating what happened in the ancient past many people simply dismiss what they cannot explain, especially if it is something which cannot be repeated in the present. As a result of this, liberals and atheists interpret material through a subjective lens of dismissal, and in doing so, miss coherent patterns.
If a person has already decided that super-natural creatures do not exist, simply because they have never had any experience of such creatures, then the thousands upon thousands of references to such creatures are all dismissed as myth or fantasy, delusions and hallucinations propagated through fear or some such thing.
The existence of giants is an excellent example of this. The recorded history of such creatures is absolutely global in almost every ancient culture. Apart from that, the physical evidence, including structures, footprints etc, cannot be easily dismissed when objective observation is applied. I discuss this evidence in my video entitled ‘Nephilim: The Global Evidence’.
Consider the following. In Genesis 6 the Bible explains that fallen angels took human women and pro-created with them producing the Nephilim hybrids who were powerful demonic rulers. In Greek mythology Zeus frequently takes human women, through deception or force and produce demi-gods such as Heracles, or Hercules in Roman tradition. In Mesopotamian tradition, the Anunnaki are divine beings who interact with humans, their kings are partly divine implying unions between humans and ‘gods’. In the early Vedas (Hindu tradition) devas (gods) and other celestial beings interact sexually with humans creating divine-human creatures. Sumerians write of Inanna regularly engaging in sexual relations with humans and bearing divine kings. All of these traditions, and dozens more, taught that these unions occurred both prior to a global flood and also after that incident, and some imply that their cities and monuments are a testimony to their human/divine gods.
The Giza Pyramids are another interesting example, being built as monuments to Pharaohs who were considered divine. The more these structures are examined, the more mysteries they create. The Great Pyramid is aligned to true North at an accuracy of 0.05 degrees, yet as far as we know, Egyptians had no compass. The entire structure has incredibly extreme geometric accuracy which cannot be explained for a culture without modern instruments. The internal stones, such as in the King’s Chamber are multi-ton blocks of granite, not sand-stone, and cut to such incredible precision that the joints are sometimes difficult to detect. Granite cannot be cut in such a way with copper or bronze tools. The astronomical alignments with specific stars are also a profound mystery. The possibility that these structures could not have been completed without non-human help became the basis for the sci-fi series Star Gate.
Many ancient texts claim that their gods walked the earth, creatures of great size and knowledge who taught and instructed human-kind. These are not mere modern superstitious nonsense about black cats, or the spurious claims of Late Medieval witch-hunters who murdered innocent women, but explanations of WHY there was a global flood, of where occult knowledge came from, and cannot be dismissed with a shrug of the shoulders. In my university textbook entitled ‘Religion: History and Mystery’ I examine the texts and beliefs of the major religions and cults.
There are incredibly consistent themes of demonic interaction, of human/demonic hybrid beings who were ruling the ancient world, as well as the experiences of people who have become involved in the occult, which are universal and well-documented.
Having said that, let’s evaluate some of the claims of liberals and atheists. It is very obvious when comparing Enuma Elish and Genesis that these two creation stories come from the same source material. Does this mean that we must take the creation stories literally? No! It simply proves that these two stories, and the others I mentioned, had a common source somewhere in their past which was likely passed down from generation to generation and finally recorded in written form.
The flood narratives are another case in point. There are over 200 stories of a global flood in as many cultures throughout the world. Throughout all of these cultures there are four common themes.
1. A divine or supernatural cause.
2. A warning given to a righteous person.
3. Survival via a vessel or high ground.
4. Rebuilding humanity afterward.
We can debate ad nauseam whether or not a global flood occurred, but what is not open to debate are two specific and powerful presumptions.
1. That at some point in humanity’s ancient history, the descendents of these cultures had a shared history, a common belief that they were the survivors of this global incident.
2. That as human beings spread across the globe, they took this same oral history with them and past it down through the generations.
My atheist commentator pointed to an article by a liberal scholar which claimed that the Tower of Babel was most likely just an ancient ziggurat rather than a different form of structure. The article pointed out that similar ziggurat structures appeared later on opposite sides of the globe in the Central American societies of the Mayan and Aztecs. The fact is that the type of structure described is totally irrelevant. What this atheist had unwittingly done was simply add proof to the Biblical claim that the vast majority of flood survivors were living in one area and building a civilization based on idol worship similar to that which brought about the motivation for the flood, and that these people were somehow forced to disperse throughout the globe.
If the people were building a ziggurat as claimed, and knowing that ziggurats were used for the creation of and sacrifice of children to so-called gods, then it helps to explain these practices later in Canaan and other parts of the world.
My question to atheists and liberal scholars is this. Why are there over 200 cultures with a global flood story with four common themes? If there were four or five such similar stories we could put it down to coincidence, but 200? And this story has been told in cultures which are presumed by evolutionists to have never interacted.
V. In summary
The Bible contains the most detailed genealogy of any ancient text. It claims that from Noah’s three sons, Ham, Shem and Japheth came all those who were scattered throughout the world. Japheth’s descendents are said to have been maritime people who generally spread North and East developing their own nations and languages (Genesis 10:4). Nothing more is mentioned of them. Ham’s descendents went South and East and established the nations of Cush, Egypt and Canaan, which feature in later Jewish history (10:6). Shem’s descendents are the line which became the Jews.
In the flood narrative we are told that Noah was a righteous man who refused to be involved in the practices of people at that time. After the statement about angelic beings pro-creating with human women and producing the Nephilim, we are told that human beings had become thoroughly evil. We are not given the details, however, the Nephilim appear again after the flood, especially in Canaan, and there we are given details of the practices of the Canaanites under Nephilim rule. They used temple prostitutes to breed children for human sacrifice, the first-born of every couple was slaughtered to their gods and they engaged in every demonic practice imaginable.
The Biblical narrative strongly implies that Ham was anything but righteous, and I believe it was through his lineage that the Nephilim returned. It is difficult for Western minds to comprehend the degree of evil and debauchery which existed prior to the flood and later in the area of Canaan. Liberal theologians dismiss it as hyperbole and atheists use it to condemn and accuse God of Genocide. There have been two times in human history when God commanded a form of genocide and on both occasions people were under the control of the Nephilim. Please watch my video entitled ‘Genocide in Canaan’ on this topic.
Many liberals and all atheists approach the Bible and ancient texts with the arrogant assumption that demons do not exist, and in the case of atheists, that nothing supernatural exists. I use the term arrogant as these people are fundamentally stating that every record of demonic activity and supernatural experiences are just the sad and pathetic imaginations of unscientific people who are less intelligent than them. That is not just arrogant, but incredibly naive and ignorant.
Once you have dismissed the supernatural, you have dismissed the temptation in Eden, the root motivation for the flood, the purpose of the Tower of Babel, and you can just approach these events with mockery. We live in the age when all principalities and demonic powers have been rendered almost powerless through the death and resurrection of Christ, yet demons can still grant the supernatural to those foolish enough to be united with them through possession. Those of us who were foolish and arrogant enough to allow demonic entities to enter us seldom speak publically of our experiences.
But like the 200 flood narratives around the globe there are other incredibly shocking common themes among those cultures which worshipped demonic entities especially regarding human sacrifice. In the Americas, the Aztec, Mayan, Inca and Moche cultures sacrificed children and adults. In Africa the Kingdom of Dahomey and Ancient Egypt sacrificed people for ceremonies and funerals, In Asia the Shang Dynasty and Ancient India performed ritual sacrifices and mass graves have been found in China. In Europe the Celts and Norse culture sacrificed human beings, and in Ancient Carthage the extensive practice of sacrificing living children by throwing them into the red hot arms of Baal shocked even the Romans.
In Oceania and the Pacific nations of Hawaii and Fiji human sacrifice was used to appease the gods and prepare for war, and of course in Ancient Mesopotamian cultures such as the Canaanites and others we have mentioned in this video. This is just a short list of documented cases but it is estimated that literally hundreds of cultures practiced human sacrifices, cannabilism and produced children for the sole purpose of slaughtering them to gain supernatural power or appease their gods.
Were they all just copying each other? Why would hundreds of nations sacrifice and murder their own children, why would so many of them insist on the most innocent or pure being murdered such as children and virgins? If you do not understand the heart of the demonic you can never correctly answer these questions, you can never understand the invisible spiritual war which is manifest in the visible realm through the deaths of those made in God’s image.
The real issue is not a meaningless debate about who copied whose text, but how human history reveals the human condition when it turns its back on God.
I pray this article has been enlightening for you. To liberal theologians and atheists I simply ask that you do not dismiss what you have never experienced or have no knowledge of. If you are interested in understanding the issues of demonology and witchcraft from an academic perspective, I did a dissertation on the topic as part of my post-grad honors degree. You can read it on academia.com or download it. The link is below.
God bless.