16 Jun 19 23:38, Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Gerrit Kuehn:
MvdV> One description says it should be 100 cubits long and 50 cubits MvdV> wide. Huibers' ship is 136 meters long and 30 meters wide. So MvdV> whatever a "cubit" is, the proportions are wrong.
GK>>>> "Myth" doesn't mean there couldn't be any truth in it, though.
MvdV> It also doesn't mean it is more than just imagination.
You (deliberately?) did not quote the Troy example I gave...
MvdV> an ulterior being that was the creator. To that I say: "the MvdV> assumption of the existance of an ulterior being does not help me MvdV> to better undetstand how the universe ticks".
OTOH, I'm pretty sure having a look into the Bible and similar books helps to understand how humans, and sometimes even the Earth, tick.
MvdV> It may very well be 100% myth. Ockham's Razor comes to mind. "if it MvdV> looks like myth, sounds like myth, smells like myth, the MvdV> explanation requiring the least presumption is that it IS myth".
The first part is merely a re-phrasing of the so-called "duck test", and has not much to do with Occham's Razor, which is in itself comes with a lot of caveats. You rely on a (questionable) universal and obvious definition of "simplicity" there. Go and try to explain to Sir Isaac Newton that the better theory of light is "simple" quantum-electrodynamics... a more complex theory might very well be preferrable if it gives a better, broader explanation. But even that first needs to be recognizable to the humble theorist.
GK>> There are several other theories (volcanoes, impacts, earthquakes, GK>> glacial runs...). A imho very interesting one is the breaking of the GK>> dam to the black sea. Meanwhile it was verified that the black sea GK>> was a sweet water lake up to the end of the last ice age.
MvdV> I can see how such an event could lead to the story of the great MvdV> flood. But the ship?
Don't forget that the story of the ship is told by the survivors of the flood and their descendants. The least we can learn from it is how they dealt with the memories of large-scale catastropic events.
