Thousands of years ago the Christian
god was just a god amongst many. (See
http://www.crystalinks.com/sumergods.html
or http://www.usfca.edu/westciv/Sumerian.html or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sumerian_gods or
http://www.geocities.com/garyweb65/sumgods.html or
http://home.comcast.net/~chris.s/sumer-faq.html#A1.3.1 or
look up the word "Elohim" on wikipedia.) Thousands
of years ago, God was known as "Anu" or the "Sky God" of Sumerian
mythology. We know this because the Bible claims Abraham came from Ur
which was located in Sumer. (See http://www.earthhistory.org.uk/ )

According to http://www.stevesdinner.plus.com/swd17.htm ,
"Orthodox tradition represents Abraham as a member of a Semitic tribe
from Ur. He probably spoke Akkadian, and the Akkadian counterparts of
the Sumerian gods Enki, An, Enlil, Utu, Nanna, and Inanna would have
been known to Abraham as Ea, Anu, Bel, Shamash, Sin, and Ishtar.
Abraham's tribe left Ur and travelled to Harran in southeastern
Turkey."

[Note: "Bel" is a Sumerian word meaning "Lord" which in this case
refers to Ea's brother.]

There's also the similarity between Sumerian mythology and the Bible:
in Sumerian mythology, the first man was named Adapa!
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adapa ) Later the world was
destroyed by Anu in a great flood from which there was only one
survivor who survived by building a boat that carried him, his family
and all their animals! (See http://www.flood-myth.com/ )
These similarities are pointed out on
http://www.historel.net/english/orient/03mesop.htm
which is a theist site that doesn't seem to mind admitting the
similarity between the Bible and other mythology! Yet it still refers
to "God" as if he actually existed!

The Bible also makes reference to the ancient Hebrew goddess Astarte
and refers to her as the "Queen of Heaven":

"The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the
women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to
pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to
anger." - Jeremiah 7:18

"But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own
mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink
offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings,
and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of
Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw
no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of
heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all
things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And
when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink
offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out
drink offerings unto her, without our men?" - Jeremiah 44:17-19

"We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense
to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: ye
will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows." -
Jeremiah 44:25

The name Astarte is easily associated with that of the Sumerian
goddess Ishtar who was also known as the "Queen of Heaven". (See
http://www.dhushara.com/book/orsin/origsin.htm
http://www.cmy.on.ca/newletters/aug2004.htm,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar
and http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/ishtar.html )

Besides mentioning that Abraham came from Ur in Sumer, the Bible also
mentions the city of Babylon and the "Tower of Babel" that was
supposedly built there. The Babylonians were hated by the Hebrews and
to this day "to babble" means to speak nonsense. The Garden of Eden
was also located in Sumer according to Genesis 2:10-14:

"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it
was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is
Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where
there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium
and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the
same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of
the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of
Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates."

The Euphrates river ran through Sumer, which is now Iraq.

It is worth noting that http://www.earthhistory.org.uk/
is actually a theist site! They refer to Anu as " the one God" but
claim that "Ea" and "Bel" were just other names for the same god.
This contradicts the fact that Anu, Ea and Bel were worshipped
separately in Sumer as three distinct Gods. (Anu was the god of the
sky, Bel was the god of wind and Ea was the god of water. Sumerian
mythology claimed that humans were created by Ea.)

According to http://www.crystalinks.com/sumergods.html
"Enki unraveled the secrets of life and death. His emblem was two
serpents ... entwined on a staff - the basis for the winged caduceus
symbol used by modern Western medicine." As Ea was the god of
knowledge, was the guardian of the "Tree of Life" in Sumerian
mythology and he was symbolized by a snake, it stands to reason that
the snake in the myth of the garden of Eden represented Ea. The
Hebrew word "Baal" meant "Lord" and thus "Baal" could have refered to
any god who was known as "Bel" kn the Sumerian panthenon. The Hebrews
were presumably told by their god to kill all followers of "Baal":

"While the Israelites were camped at Acacia, some of the men defiled
themselves by sleeping with the local Moabite women. These women
invited them to attend sacrifices to their gods, and soon the
Israelites were feasting with them and worshiping the gods of Moab.
Before long Israel was joining in the worship of Baal of Peor, causing
the LORD's anger to blaze against his people. The LORD issued the
following command to Moses: "Seize all the ringleaders and execute
them before the LORD in broad daylight, so his fierce anger will turn
away from the people of Israel." So Moses ordered Israel's judges to
execute everyone who had joined in worshiping Baal of Peor. Just then
one of the Israelite men brought a Midianite woman into the camp,
right before the eyes of Moses and all the people, as they were
weeping at the entrance of the Tabernacle. When Phinehas son of
Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest saw this, he jumped up and
left the assembly. Then he took a spear and rushed after the man into
his tent. Phinehas thrust the spear all the way through the man's body
and into the woman's stomach. So the plague against the Israelites
was stopped, but not before 24,000 people had died." - Numbers 25:1-9

Incidentally, the myth of Moses was probably inspired by the legend of
the historical pharoah Ahmose. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmose_I
).

What is interesting is that theists today are willing to accept that
their god was the god An of Sumer but they don't see why this should
be a challenge to faith. (
http://www.christianblog.com/blog/thomas/abram-was-from-sumer-after-all/
) An was the most powerful god in Sumerian mythology and hence it is
understandable that Abraham would choose him as the "one true god" and
dismiss all the others but then the question would be if Anu (God)
exists then what about all the other gods.

So God is just a myth created by man to explain the world around him
and give him comfort. If that's not good enough for you, consider the
fact that God had been used in the past to explain everything from
storms to floods to earthquakes to volcanic eruptions but that we now
have scientific explanations for all of these calamities and thus
don't need to use any gods (let alone God) to explain them. The fact
is that scientists can perform measurements today that agree with the
predictions of quantum theory to ten digit precision and accuracy.
The so called "God of the gaps" has become so infinitessimally small
that we can feel confident that it doesn't exist at all.

Martin

Thousands of years ago the Christian
god was just a god amongst many. (See http://www.crystalinks.com/sumergods.html
or http://www.usfca.edu/westciv/Sumerian.html or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Sumerian_gods or
http://www.geocities.com/garyweb65/sumgods.html or
http://home.comcast.net/~chris.s/sumer-faq.html#A1.3.1 or
look up the word "Elohim" on wikipedia.) Thousands
of years ago, God was known as "Anu" or the "Sky God" of Sumerian
mythology. We know this because the Bible claims Abraham came from Ur
which was located in Sumer. (See http://www.earthhistory.org.uk/ )

According to http://www.stevesdinner.plus.com/swd17.htm ,
"Orthodox tradition represents Abraham as a member of a Semitic tribe
from Ur. He probably spoke Akkadian, and the Akkadian counterparts of
the Sumerian gods Enki, An, Enlil, Utu, Nanna, and Inanna would have
been known to Abraham as Ea, Anu, Bel, Shamash, Sin, and Ishtar.
Abraham's tribe left Ur and travelled to Harran in southeastern
Turkey."

[Note: "Bel" is a Sumerian word meaning "Lord" which in this case
refers to Ea's brother.]

There's also the similarity between Sumerian mythology and the Bible:
in Sumerian mythology, the first man was named Adapa!
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adapa ) Later the world was
destroyed by Anu in a great flood from which there was only one
survivor who survived by building a boat that carried him, his family
and all their animals! (See http://www.flood-myth.com/ )
These similarities are pointed out on http://www.historel.net/english/orient/03mesop.htm
which is a theist site that doesn't seem to mind admitting the
similarity between the Bible and other mythology! Yet it still refers
to "God" as if he actually existed!

The Bible also makes reference to the ancient Hebrew goddess Astarte
and refers to her as the "Queen of Heaven":

"The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the
women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to
pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to
anger." - Jeremiah 7:18

"But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own
mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink
offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings,
and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of
Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw
no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of
heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all
things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And
when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink
offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out
drink offerings unto her, without our men?" - Jeremiah 44:17-19

"We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense
to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: ye
will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows." -
Jeremiah 44:25

The name Astarte is easily associated with that of the Sumerian
goddess Ishtar who was also known as the "Queen of Heaven". (See
http://www.dhushara.com/book/orsin/origsin.htm
http://www.cmy.on.ca/newletters/aug2004.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar
and http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/ishtar.html )

Besides mentioning that Abraham came from Ur in Sumer, the Bible also
mentions the city of Babylon and the "Tower of Babel" that was
supposedly built there. The Babylonians were hated by the Hebrews and
to this day "to babble" means to speak nonsense. The Garden of Eden
was also located in Sumer according to Genesis 2:10-14:

"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it
was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is
Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where
there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium
and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the
same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of
the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of
Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates."

The Euphrates river ran through Sumer, which is now Iraq.

It is worth noting that http://www.earthhistory.org.uk/
is actually a theist site! They refer to Anu as " the one God" but
claim that "Ea" and "Bel" were just other names for the same god.
This contradicts the fact that Anu, Ea and Bel were worshipped
separately in Sumer as three distinct Gods. (Anu was the god of the
sky, Bel was the god of wind and Ea was the god of water. Sumerian
mythology claimed that humans were created by Ea.)

According to http://www.crystalinks.com/sumergods.html
"Enki unraveled the secrets of life and death. His emblem was two
serpents ... entwined on a staff - the basis for the winged caduceus
symbol used by modern Western medicine." As Ea was the god of
knowledge, was the guardian of the "Tree of Life" in Sumerian
mythology and he was symbolized by a snake, it stands to reason that
the snake in the myth of the garden of Eden represented Ea. The
Hebrew word "Baal" meant "Lord" and thus "Baal" could have refered to
any god who was known as "Bel" kn the Sumerian panthenon. The Hebrews
were presumably told by their god to kill all followers of "Baal":

"While the Israelites were camped at Acacia, some of the men defiled
themselves by sleeping with the local Moabite women. These women
invited them to attend sacrifices to their gods, and soon the
Israelites were feasting with them and worshiping the gods of Moab.
Before long Israel was joining in the worship of Baal of Peor, causing
the LORD's anger to blaze against his people. The LORD issued the
following command to Moses: "Seize all the ringleaders and execute
them before the LORD in broad daylight, so his fierce anger will turn
away from the people of Israel." So Moses ordered Israel's judges to
execute everyone who had joined in worshiping Baal of Peor. Just then
one of the Israelite men brought a Midianite woman into the camp,
right before the eyes of Moses and all the people, as they were
weeping at the entrance of the Tabernacle. When Phinehas son of
Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest saw this, he jumped up and
left the assembly. Then he took a spear and rushed after the man into
his tent. Phinehas thrust the spear all the way through the man's body
and into the woman's stomach. So the plague against the Israelites
was stopped, but not before 24,000 people had died." - Numbers 25:1-9

Incidentally, the myth of Moses was probably inspired by the legend of
the historical pharoah Ahmose. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmose_I
).

What is interesting is that theists today are willing to accept that
their god was the god An of Sumer but they don't see why this should
be a challenge to faith. ( http://www.christianblog.com/blog/thomas/abram-was-from-sumer-after-all/
) An was the most powerful god in Sumerian mythology and hence it is
understandable that Abraham would choose him as the "one true god" and
dismiss all the others but then the question would be if Anu (God)
exists then what about all the other gods.

So God is just a myth created by man to explain the world around him
and give him comfort. If that's not good enough for you, consider the
fact that God had been used in the past to explain everything from
storms to floods to earthquakes to volcanic eruptions but that we now
have scientific explanations for all of these calamities and thus
don't need to use any gods (let alone God) to explain them. The fact
is that scientists can perform measurements today that agree with the
predictions of quantum theory to ten digit precision and accuracy.
The so called "God of the gaps" has become so infinitessimally small
that we can feel confident that it doesn't exist at all.

Martin