Just imagine for a minute.?

Question

Hopefully somebody with a bit of intelligence will get what I'm trying to ask.
Let's go back in time to when we were evolving. We must have been able to communicate in some way. When we developed the ability to communicate with words, would we have been able to describe past communications or experiences? Could this be how we developed the idea of Gods or supernatural activities?
It's quite hard to describe what I'm trying to put across but bear with me please. Let's say that a volcanic eruption was witnessed by one generation (before language) this was communicated down a few generations (how? I don't know). When language started to develop, would this perhaps have been described as "Great fire from the sky" or something to that effect? and as vocabulary increased so did elaboration of the observation of said volcano, this in turn gets mis interpretted further down the line as some unworldly phenomena? as it's always human nature to try and personify something.

Answer 1

This is a bit like chinese whispers, you say one thing and when its been passed around a group of people, the last person says something completely different to what you said. I think that people have exaggerated these things as they've been passed down a few generations. Its a shame that there is no physical evidence to back up these sort claims, but yes I do believe in some truth however I think a lot of it is fabricated for it to make sense. This is the same for religion (the bible, etc), because we've evolved so much we are now beginning to question the stories which our ancestors have passed down and this is all due to lack of evidence. I also believe that a lot of things were made up so that it made sense to us. I hope that one day we can learn the real truth about historic events.

Answer 2

I personally think some was passed on by drawings others by trying in their own way to communicate. I believe this is how the Hindu myths evolved i.e that Ganesh was an elephant. I think he was probably a man with a long nose and big ears....a sign that was supposed to be of intelligence. That Hanuman the monkey god was a very agile and fast moving person When they were being described the words were badly exaggerated. That Krishna was of a dark complexion which was so black that it was almost blue.I would imagine that the volcano would have been defined as fire being thrown up from the earth and meotrites and comets would have been the fire from the sky. As someone else says Homer was good at describing nature in his Ulysees ....the swirling waters and undercurrents and his, I believe, is the oldest written story .....how heavens opened etc.

Answer 3

I agree with first answerer! Visited Lascaut (Don't know if my spelling's right) in France. They have a cave with drawings going back to long before anyone ever wrote. Guide explained that, in their days, dawing was a way to communicate, they would see something, draw it on the walls, then anyone coming in after them would know what it was about. by the way ... I can't remember for sure if it was lascaut but some cave has an interesting drawing ... That of what most certainly looks like a flying saucer! Also men wearing white robes, with a halo over their head so ...

You ask about the great fire in the sky. I lived in the north of Scotland for many years, my friend's grand-mother called northern lights the great fire in the sky!

Well yes as individuals we try to rationalise everything! It comforts us, makes us feel we're not stupid! We have an explanation, you know ... 'I think therefore i am'. But as for communication ... Have you ever played that game when you whisper something to someone else who whispers it to next person etc. By the time it gets to the last person ... Original message has been totally distorted. And yes our dictionaries increase in volumes simply because they include more and more words, the English language has a huge vocabulary and maybe, just maybe some people use on word when they really mean another, making it hard for the next person to undetand, draw their own conclusions and thus ... Alter the original message.

As for God, my understanding is that part of the Bible was written in hebrew, the other part in greek and words lost in the translation so really ... You can't exactly rely on it! Not unless you were to learn both languages in order to fully comprehend what they're talking about!

Answer 4

I suppose it's quite likely that the idea of attributing inanimate objects with spirits would involve something similar, though I doubt that it's as "accidental" as someone trying to describe a phenomenon such as volcanoes before the advent of organised language and future generations from that point getting misinterpreting it ala Chinese whispers. I suspect it's more that a group of individuals feel similar awe with a phenomenon like volcanoes and react to that in some way (could be by some non-verbal ways such as kneeling or bowing, or even just by facial expressions). Others, in seeing the same thing and feeling the same emotions, or feel empathic to how these first group of people feel and react, react the same way. It's not difficult to imagine from there a tradition of marking such phenomenons with respect and awe gets passed down from one generation to another.

There's also visual representation of such elements, such as in cave paintings. Graphics are a very powerful tool to communicate and a few strokes of an ochre stained finger could get a powerful message across to generations.

Answer 5

It happens all the time, even now. Scientists think that in the 18th (I think) century there was a huge tsunami in the northwest that caused seawater to reach far inland. The Native Americans didn't have the words to describe such a thing--it would have been beyond almost anybody's grasp, anyway--so they described it as a huge bird god, and they handed down the story of it from generation to generation. They still believed in it when Lewis and Clark arrived. That is the bird shown on totem poles.

Answer 6

I would probably say that there was some form of communication before language... as is evident with cave drawings and such, and that yes, i think that events would be exagerated or twisted over time due to individual interpretations of these. It is possible that the idea of a God was formed through these means but I doubt we'll ever find the true answers to your questions.

Answer 7

Volcano is a natural phenomenon, part of nature, so it could not have seemed intriguing to the primitive Man. I think this failure to adapt to the natural world, a feeling of not belonging to animal world which prompted early human beings to embark on this search for God. Perfectly adapted to the world, wild animals concentrated their effort on hunting and surviving while humans, haunted by this need to escape their plight, drew, danced and prayed. The need to search God is a legitimate quest as humans do not belong to the animal world

Answer 8

I think you are just trying to rationalise the concept of Armageddon!

You want an explanation for the things said in the book of REVELATIONS in the bible!!

Guess what? We all came and met religion and all these stories, so i believe what makes sense to me and have faith that God in His infinite wisdom will tell my heart what to believe!!!

Just do your best to be a good person and not worry so much about what the meaning of life.

Answer 9

this is how most folk tales evolved,along with mythology. before spoken language, people most likely use a form of signing. they say all fiction has a bases in fact, so this could of happened. the Greeks used Gods with human frailties to explain human nature,and to justify theirs.

Answer 10

Never thought of that before...wondered how they communicated at first...guess like monkeys, kinda, but never thought about the past...maybe they used drawings as references...but yeah, most certainly exaggerated.