I have been thinking about for somet time: If Atlantis is found what would that mean for Christianity?

Question

This is something that I just would like to know about, since that most Christians think it to be a Pagan fairy tail. If Atlantis as Plato described it was real; what would that mean to the Christians here?

I do not mean any offense by this question, but being a former Christian I find it a bit perplexing to think that if it is/was real it would re-write history as we know it. And since the story of Atlantis is not in any way a re-telling of the flood story: How would the Three Great Religions (Christianity, Jewdisim [sorry if I am missspelling this], and Islam) of the world take its discovery?

Thank you Pheonix for your corection of my spelling error.

Unfortanatly Allen T and others who have/will use the same logic train. Yes it would be easy for Christians to place Atlantis as an antideluvian socity, but the descritption of Atlantis' distruction veries radicaly from the flood story in Genisis.

Noah's Flood took forty days and forty nights, and Atlantis was distroyed in a SINGLE day and night. That distruction was not by rain, but by volcanic activity and tidal waves.

Also my decison to become Pagan had nothing to do with a lack of morals, or a missguided belief that I was right and Christianity was wrong. Quite the opposite; I believe that all religions have validity. It is not up to me or any one individual mortal to prove or dispove any ones faith. I have said in respose to other questions, and I will say it again: I mean no offense to any one, nor do a puss upon them my religious belief. Faith is personal matter with me, and I do not entend to cause the down fall of any religion great or small.

Answer 1

Dear Allen T,
I hear by subjugate your reality and implant my own.

Did you know that the "Bible" has been changed over the past two millennia. Since the Catholic church has left out the good parts of the "Bible" we no longer know what is true, but in the name of Jesus, Christians have destroyed other faiths of the world to supplant their own beliefs on other nations and people which in the "Bible" God says do not JUDGE others or their way of belief.
And I quote nowhere in Genesis does it state that the entire world was governed by God.

If we did find Atlantis it would rewrite everything we know.

"And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived and bore him Enoch: and he built a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch."
Genesis 4:16&17

Nod means to wounder in ancient Hebrew coptic scripts. And we have yet to find "EDEN". AND ENOCH WAS A GOOD PRE-FLOOD CIVILAZATION AND IRRONICLY THE CHILDREN ARE OF CAIN............

*stps off soap box* "Thank you. I'll be back next week." bows and exits stage right.

Answer 2

The Bible freely admits the existence of antediluvean civilization. According to the account in Genesis, these societies were violent, evil, and were wiped out on account of it.

"When men began to increase in number ... the Lord saw how great man's wickedness on earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil ... so the Lord said, 'I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth -- men and animals ..." (6: 5-7).

To abbreviate the offenses of mankind, God chooses a flood to inundate the entire world. Out of all humans living in civilizations at that time, only one man -- Noah -- was righteous enough and, being "blameless among the people," was guided to build the ark.

In regards to Atlantis "not being a re-telling of the flood story," how can you be sure? It is worth noting that the Bible itself does not constrain the possibility for even several civilizations to have come to pass before the Flood (that is, for those of us who see the geneaological lists and Biblical time as allegories and not to be taken literally). Many millenia could have passed between creation and the Flood. Though the Bible doesn't refer to these civilizations as "Atlantis" or "Mu" by name, it may well be that Atlantis was ante-antediluvean.

Christian theologians could easily place such a discovery into this category. I agree that the discovery of such a continent would rewrite the secular understanding of history.

Besides, how would the discoverers know that the archaeological remains they've recovered are, in fact, from Atlantis? Even if an ancient continental civilization was found somehow intact, it would take decades to decipher its written language. Discounting the descriptions of Atlantis by intuitives (e.g., Edgar Cayce and other channelers) our knowledge of Atlantis, taken from Plato, is not very detailed. Three concentric walls of themselves would not be conclusive proof. And how would be identify the famed orichalchos?

I hope this helps --

Answer 3

No offense, but I don't see the logic in totally rejecting the possible reality of the Great Flood while at the same time pondering the possible existence of Atlantis.

Seems to me that you abandoned Christianity simply because it contained moral teachings that you simply did not want to hear or abide by -- and now you're just looking for any way to try to discredit it so as to psychologically validate your choice to abandon it.

I don't know you personally and so I could be wrong about that -- but I've seen it LOTS of times before.

Now, regarding your question as to what the discovery of Atlantis would do to Christianity -- nothing. Nothing at all.

Christian teaching is utterly silent on the issue of whether a place called Atlantis ever existed. That's for science, not religion, to decide.

Even if Atlantis were discovered to have once existed, it would not invalidate Christianity in the slightest. Christianity's theological and moral teachings have nothing to do with it.

Answer 4

Yea, cant say it would change. It could have existed, sure. Maybe it was a real place people lived. But the stories that surronded it, the thought of multiple Greek Gods and the like, would take more proving than just finding a location, Im sure.

Finding out everthing Plato wrote to be true, would be much more disheartining than finding Atlantis.

Answer 5

Sorry, but why exactly is this a problem?

The only reason we have copies of the great Greek works today is because Christian monks copiously copied them, and Muslim scholars collected and protected extant copies of these works.

Minoan Crete (long supposed to be the basis for the Atlantis stories) predates Christianity by 1500 years. Anything that happened there could hardly be a theological problem for Christianity, whose scriptures never mention it.

Answer 6

That the Bible is still correct. Because I believe Atlantis did exist at one time and it was a pre-flood city. Compare the stories of Atlantis with the facts in the Bible concerning the Flood of Noah.

Answer 7

I don't think Atlantis is spoken of in the Bible either way. The Bible doesn't specifically mention dinosaurs, nor petroleum, or the Americas. Does the lack of mention of these things mean the Bible isn't true, or does it only mean that God limited his revelation according to the understanding of ancient Middle Easterners?

Conversely, something in the Bible makes me wonder if some of those Greek myths aren't true: Genesis 6:1-4 refers to the offspring of heavenly beings and human women as "heroes of old, men of renown". This makes me think of Zeus, et al, impregnating human women and producing special children like Perseus and Helen of Troy. Hmm...maybe there's a glimmer of truth or fact in those old Greek myths!

Answer 8

I don't see how finding Atlantis would have any effect at all on any religion, christian or not. Plato was real, so Atlantis could be real too. Regardless, I fail to see what it would have to do with christianity. It would be pretty cool though.

Answer 9

Discovering that the mythical city of Atlantis really existed would have no bearing at all on Christianity or any other religion anymore than the dicovery of ElDorado or Shangrila.

Answer 10

the finding of Atlantis will not effect anything in particular.but findings inside the Atlantis may do something.
they say they are the strongest group and most advanced and powerful.so if there are any writings in that place which gives the data of their world then there may be some effect on concept of religion and gods.