Culture gap as a debating tactic against chrisitans?

ray245 · Post by **ray245** » 2008-02-12 07:10am

I was wondering about this. Is it possible for us to use culture gap as a debating tactics against christians?

After all, the culture gap between the far east( namely China, korea and japan ) and europe is a large one.

Even in creationism, the sons of Noah and etc, the bible has failed to make any mention of the far eastern ethnic group, the chinese, japanese and Koreans.

Moreover, the fact that the orientials religion concept seems to be very alien towards any western religion. Bascially, there is no mentioning of the people in korea, china and Japan in any version of the Koran, Torah and bible.

Can a christian accept those facts?

Axiomatic · Post by **Axiomatic** » 2008-02-12 07:18am

Well, the christian will point out that a lot of these cultures have some sort of myth involving a drought, which PROVES that the Noah story is true.

Of course, it might boggle his mind to learn that other cultures also have rivers, which sometimes overflow.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-02-12 11:34am

Without more context this is an utterly meaningless question. And as I recall the Bible commanded Jesus' disciples to stay out of Asia. So it's not as if they were completely ignorant of the area.

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2008-02-12 12:48pm

If you mean the gap between the stupid and the more intelligent, then sure.

OmegaGuy · Post by **OmegaGuy** » 2008-02-13 06:21pm

Isn't one of their arguments that the Chinese character for ark means "8 mouths" and that means it was Noah's ark because there were 8 people on it?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-02-13 07:48pm

OmegaGuy wrote:Isn't one of their arguments that the Chinese character for ark means "8 mouths" and that means it was Noah's ark because there were 8 people on it?

Patently false and easily debunked claim.

OmegaGuy · Post by **OmegaGuy** » 2008-02-13 08:08pm

I know that. The point was that they try to find evidence from eastern civilizations to back up their claims, so this idea probably won't work.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-02-13 08:32pm

OmegaGuy wrote:I know that. The point was that they try to find evidence from eastern civilizations to back up their claims, so this idea probably won't work.

It's a typical apologist tactic. The more outrageous their lies and claims the harder the time they're having attempting to defend their point.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2008-02-14 12:31am

OmegaGuy wrote:I know that. The point was that they try to find evidence from eastern civilizations to back up their claims, so this idea probably won't work.

You know, there this quote from David Gemmell in the book Knights of Dark Renown that comes to mind.

Why is it that all these stories always happen in the far north or some other land far away? Is it so that that nobody can check it out?

The use of relatively obscure legends vis a vis their target audience appears to be more of preaching to the choir than anything. Over here, I seen evangelists use the exact opposite, preaching that ancient Middle East and Roman civilisation prove that the Bible is real and etc etc etc.

Vultur · Post by **Vultur** » 2008-02-14 06:31pm

I am a Christian (and accept evolution and other science).

I never heard the "8 mouths = ark" thing, and it sounds like BS to me. (I think the Noah story, and all other flood stories, are memories of the 300-foot sea level rise at the end of the last Ice Age.)

But why would the religion/culture gap be any sort of argument against Christianity? True or not, Christianity had to start
somewhere, and it started in Israel. The Far East retained its original religions, while Europe did not - and so European-descendant countries are largely Christian, and the Far East is largely not.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2008-02-14 10:44pm

General Zod wrote:
OmegaGuy wrote:Isn't one of their arguments that the Chinese character for ark means "8 mouths" and that means it was Noah's ark because there were 8 people on it?
Patently false and easily debunked claim.

Someone should tell talkorigins that they need to include pictures of the relevant characters.

But these stories are a dime a dozen. I once heard someone who had just been on a rather long excursion to Japan insist that the Japanese character for "forbidden" meant "two trees" and was supposed to be a reference to the Garden of Eden, first the tree of knowledge was forbidden, then access to the tree of life was blocked.

ray245 · Post by **ray245** » 2008-02-15 01:14am

Axiomatic wrote:Well, the christian will point out that a lot of these cultures have some sort of myth involving a drought, which PROVES that the Noah story is true.

Of course, it might boggle his mind to learn that other cultures also have rivers, which sometimes overflow.

The funny thing is, despite the fact that they are flood in chinese myths and stories, the entire human race was not affected to a great extend. In some myths, the emperor of the Xia dynasty managed to build a dam to stop the flood and save the ENTIRE population, not just one single family. If that flood is the able as the flood in the bible, that means the chinese are able to fight against god's wrath.

Furthermore, the families of Noah was said to be of different colours in terms of their skin, but to my knowledge, none of Noah son seems to be related to the chinese. Even IF Fundies decides to argue that the chinese are also descended from Noah, we can use it against them, saying that this could only way skin colours was changed was due to evolution.

If anyone tried to lie thier way across using Chinese words and etc, it is extremly easy to prove that they are lying. Simply point out to them, the words is derived from other means, and there is no connections to any Bible stories.

Axiomatic · Post by **Axiomatic** » 2008-02-15 03:04am

Wait...drought means a LACK of water, not having too much of it.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2008-02-15 06:59am

ray245 wrote: The funny thing is, despite the fact that they are flood in chinese myths and stories, the entire human race was not affected to a great extend. In some myths, the emperor of the Xia dynasty managed to build a dam to stop the flood and save the ENTIRE population, not just one single family. If that flood is the able as the flood in the bible, that means the chinese are able to fight against god's wrath.

Furthermore, the families of Noah was said to be of different colours in terms of their skin, but to my knowledge, none of Noah son seems to be related to the chinese. Even IF Fundies decides to argue that the chinese are also descended from Noah, we can use it against them, saying that this could only way skin colours was changed was due to evolution.

If anyone tried to lie thier way across using Chinese words and etc, it is extremly easy to prove that they are lying. Simply point out to them, the words is derived from other means, and there is no connections to any Bible stories.

When did that stop anything?
As it is, the nu-wa/noah link can be easily destroyed by any casual reading. For some odd reason, they keep insisting that Nu-wa is a male, although all modern sources indicate that its a female, and the ancient primary sources that survived the Qin dynasty suggest that she's a female dragon. Yet, christians insist that their interpretation of events is more accurate.