Why Faith Fails The Christian Delusion

by John W. Loftus

life be established forever and as firmly as heaven and earth. For instance, the

  prologue to the code of laws of a famed king of Babylon, states: "Marduk [high

  god of Babylon] ... founded an everlasting kingdom, whose foundations are laid

  as solidly as those of heaven and earth."3 It is not difficult to see why such a

  concern proved central in the ancient Near East, where kingdoms of divine (or

  divinely appointed) kings competed for supremacy. In like manner, some of their

  myths involved gods competing for supremacy, resulting in the winner(s)

  creating the world over which he (they) ruled. In contrast, other myths involved

  no conflict, but depicted a high god acting like a king, simply commanding

  creation to arise. As Mark S. Smith points out:

  We may identify three major models of creation [creating by divine power,

  creating with divine wisdom, or creating with some form of the divine

  presence] all related to kingship.... Power, wisdom, and presence (especially

  in the palace) are all attributes associated with kings. In addition, the king is

  responsible for building temples. In accordance with these ideas, various

  creation accounts present God as a warrior-king, as a wise ruler, or as the

  great monarchic presence in his palace or builder of his sanctuary space. All

  of tbe.re were old ideas in the ancient world well before the historical

  emergence of Israel around 1200 BCE [emphasis added] .4

  Since the king's power was associated with the power of god(s), it was

  essential for the king to maintain divine approval. So as kingdom succeeded

  kingdom, sacred myths were recycled, re-edited, or combined with others.' And

  the names of the winners in these myths were changed to match the names of the

  gods worshiped by the new regimes. This was only fitting, since the new

  regimes believed their gods had helped them conquer the old regimes. And to

  their gods the kings and priests built temples and performed sacred rituals. For

  they must not risk angering the gods, otherwise the gods could dissolve creation

  in whole or in part by sending floods (as in The Epic of Gilgamesh and Noah's

  Flood) earthquakes (by shaking heaven and earth), lightning (by casting down

  fire from heaven), volcanic eruptions (by casting down fire and brimstone),

  plagues, famines, or invading armies. (Interestingly, ancient texts reveal that the

  Hebrews employed the same rationalization as their neighbors when it came to

  explaining why bad things happened to them. It was "divine punishment" due to

  immorality and lack of proper worship.)6

  In short, ancient Near Eastern kings, priests, and people were concerned with

  making sure that their kingdoms-as well as the earth beneath their feet, the

  waters on their shores, and the sky above their heads-were secure and stable.

  And they believed the best way to keep things that way was to curry the favor of

  gods.

  With that in mind, let's take a look at the creation and cosmological myths of

  Egypt and Mesopotamia-civilizations older than Israel-before looking at

  "biblical cosmology."

  EGYPTIAN COSMOLOGY

  According to John A. Wilson in Before Philosophy, Egyptian concepts of earth

  and sky/heaven changed slowly over a period of about three thousand years,

  "with vestiges of prehistoric development partially visible." 7 But their

  representations left no doubt as to how important the sky's support was to them.

  In one image, heaven was represented as the underbelly of a star-studded

  celestial cow whose legs were planted firmly on the earth below. They also

  wrote about "four posts" (not unlike the four legs of the celestial cow) holding

  up heaven. Wilson adds, "The great distance of the posts was asserted by such

  expressions as `I have set ... the terror of thee as far as the four pillars of heaven.'

  That the posts were four in number suggests they were placed at the limits of the

  four cardinal directions ... an arrangement that appealed to the Egyptian as being

  both strong and permanent: `(As firm) as heaven resting upon its four posts' is a

  simile used more than once."8

  Heaven was also depicted as an inverted pan with stars on it-and there is an

  image of a divine Egyptian king holding up the inverted pan of heaven.9

  Another image has the inverted pan of heaven being held up by a semicircle

  directly beneath it, a semicircle that stretches over a flat earth, reaching from one

  distant mountain at one horizon to another distant mountain at the opposite

  horizon, looking like a dome above the earthsuch a "wall-ring" representation

  may have made heaven appear doubly secure and solidly upheld.10

  Yet another image depicts heaven as a star-studded goddess whose body is

  arched in a semicircle above a prone earth-god. The goddess's fingers and toes

  touch the earth's far horizons and support her. Such an image was derived from

  the idea that heaven and earth arose from two deities (a goddess, named Nut, and

  a male god) whose bodies were locked in a passionate embrace, but one day they

  separated (or were separated by a third god), creating enough space between

  them for heaven and earth to arise. Some images depict this third god, Shu, with

  his arms raised beneath the goddess of heaven. In the Pyramid Texts, circa 3000

  BCE, it says, "The arms of Shu are under Nut, that he may carry her" (utterance

  506, 1101c). This third god, Shu, added assurance that heaven would remain

  securely in place.11 Some images depict Shu standing on the flat earth with the

  symbol for mountains on his head, and the mountains are in direct contact with

  the belly of the sky goddess, which illustrates the idea that "mountains of the

  horizon provide immediate support of the sky"12

  Egyptian tales of creation begin with divinities of water, darkness,

  formlessness and emptiness, as well as air and wind. Creation takes place via a

  regal command either of the heart or the spoken word. According to the

  Egyptian Book of the Dead, every act of creation represented a thought of a high

  creator god and its expression in "words." A host of Egyptian creation myths

  agreed that the agency of creation was the god's "word." They also depicted

  primeval waters being divided and a primeval hill (the earth) emerging out of

  those waters. So the earth was understood to be dry land encompassed above,

  below, and at the furthest horizon by primeval waters.

  Lastly, it is important to note that Egyptian ideas of god(s), ranged from crude

  polytheistic notions to ideas of a most high divinity. Egyptians employed such

  exalted notions as "The Ancient of Heaven ... Supporter of the Heavens, Founder

  of the Earth, Lord of Days, Maker of Light... whose eye subdues the wicked,

  sending forth its darts to the roof of the firmament."13 "Hail to Thee ... to the

  height of the heavens, to the breadth of the earth, to the depths of the sea

  [compare job 11:8, 9] ... who raises the heavens and fixes the earth [compare Job

  26:7] ... causing all things which are to exist."14 "Who suspended or raised the

  heaven, who laid down the ground, Father of the fathers of all the gods"15 or the

  high god is "one and alone, and none other exists with him-he existed when

  nothing else existe
d-he is a spirit-no man knows his form. No man has been able

  to seek out his likeness-He has stretched out the heavens and founded the earth

  ... He fashioned men and formed the gods-he gives life to man, he breathes the

  breath of life into his nostrils .... 1116

  In conclusion, ancient Egyptians depicted the earth as the foundation of

  creation with heaven stretched out above it. Furthermore, they believed a high

  god or gods made everything, held it firmly in place, and kept at bay primeval

  waters. As we shall see, this view was common in the ancient Near East.

  MESOPOTAMIAN COSMOLOGY

  Over the centuries, Mesopotamian kingdoms included those of the Sumerians,

  Akkadians, Babylonians, Kassites, Hittites, Assyrians, and Chaldeans/ Neo-

  Babylonians, as well as the city-states of Ebla, Ugarit and Emar (to name a few).

  In general, Mesopotamian and Egyptian tales of creation involved the same basic

  "elements," that is, darkness and light, wind and water, and a separation of

  heaven from earth. For instance, a Sumerian myth depicts a single mountain

  rising out of a primeval sea and an air-god dividing the mountain in two to form

  heaven and earth, lifting heaven on high. In a Hittite version of the separation of

  heaven and earth, a saw, or divine cleaver, does the dividing. In Phoenician

  cosmology, a "world egg" cracks into two equal halves, heaven above and earth

  below. And in Babylonian and Hebrew versions waters are divided.

  The Mesopotamians, like the Egyptians, also placed a high, even magical

  value, upon "words," and the necessity of obeying spoken commands from

  kings, priests, and, of course, gods. The pre-Babylonian civilization of Sumeria

  believed that all things existed and were made by the "word" of a high god

  named Enki. In fact, they viewed the "word" of all their gods as a definite and

  real thing-a divine entity or agent. Even Sumerian personal names reflected their

  belief in the power of the "word," including names like, "The word of the wise

  one is eternal," "His word is true," and, "The word which he spoke shakes the

  heavens."17 A very early Sumerian prayer to a god states, "Thy word upon the

  sea has been projected and returns not [void]."18 Compare subsequent Hebrew

  usage, "So shall my [the Lord's] word be which goeth up from my mouth; it shall

  not return unto me void; For it shall have done that which I desired." (Isaiah

  55:11).

  The Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish, begins, "When on high no name

  was given to heaven, Nor below was the netherworld called by name. ... When

  no gods at all had been brought forth, None called by names, no destinies

  ordained,"19 and adds that before all else there existed primeval waters in the

  form of two deities, male and female, "their waters comingling." Later in the

  story, Marduk leads the fight against Tiamat, the female water-deity, depicted as

  a raging monster. He subdues her and splits her open like a fish for drying (or an

  opened clamshell) making heaven out of her (as a cover above the watery deep

  below-for the earth has not yet been made). Marduk stretches out her skin and

  assigns watchmen, ordering them not to let Tiamat's waters escape, thus allaying

  ancient fears that creation might be washed away by the waters above. Such a

  scene may be compared with Genesis 1, where primeval waters are divided by a

  firmament with the upper waters positioned above the firmament.20 A

  Babylonian tablet fragment even mentions a Tiamateliti and a Tiamatsapliti, that

  is an Upper Tiamat (or ocean) and a Lower Tiamat (or ocean), that correspond to

  the waters above and below the firmament in Genesis 1:7.21

  Ancient concern over how heaven was secured can also be seen in the

  depiction of Marduk twisting Tiamat's tail into something he uses to "keep the

  heavens in place over the earth's surface, and then using Tiamat's crotch as a

  wedge to hoist the heavens upward and keep them from falling."22 Heaven and

  earth are also joined together: "A number of texts refer to cosmic bonds,

  including `bonds,' `lead-ropes,' and `the great bond,' which secure the heavens in

  place. (Another text speaks of `seams' of heaven and earth.)"23

  According to Wayne Horowitz, author of Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography,

  "Ancient Mesopotamian understandings [of the general shape of the cosmos]

  remained remarkably constant over the 2,500 years or so from the earliest

  evidence for cosmography in literary materials through the end of the cuneiform

  writing.24... Heaven is the upper of the two halves of the universe. In ancient

  Mesopotamia, as in Judeo-Christian tradition, the heavens include both the

  visible areas [clouds, sun, moon, stars] ... and higher regions above the sky,

  where gods of heaven dwell."25

  Mesopotamian myths describe the higher regions of the sky as having a stone

  floor. According to Horowitz, "The floors of each level of the heavens were

  composed of a different type of stone ... These assumptions find support in a

  parallel from Exodus, where the floor of heaven is apparently built of blue-

  sapphire brick (Exodus 24:9-10; Ezekiel 1:26-28, 10:1) ... The gods Anu and

  Igigi apparently stand on stone floors of the Upper and Middle Heavens, just as

  the God of Israel is apparently standing on a blue `sapphire' brick heavenly floor

  in Exodus."26 Horowitz adds, "The interior of Marduk's cella in the Middle

  Heavens cannot be seen from earth, but its blue stone floor may be visible as the

  blue sky. Marduk drew stars on the Lower Heavens."77 And this heaven was not

  light-years away, for in the tale of Etana, Etana and the eagle are able to fly to

  the Heaven of Anu.28

  How were the heavens shaped? Horowitz explains, "Mesopotamians believed

  that the heavens were extremely broad and high ... a number of texts make it

  clear that the heavens extend over the entire earth's surface."29 An ancient Near

  Eastern poem contains the phrase, "Wherever the earth is laid, and the heavens

  are stretched out."30 Compare this to Hebrew proclamations concerning how the

  Lord has stretched out the heavens above the earth: Psalms 33:14, 144:5; Isaiah

  40:22, 45:12. It may run counter to today's astronomical wisdom to marvel at the

  mere fact that the heavens cover the earth below, but to flat-earth-minded

  ancients, the creation of heaven and its maintenance above the earth, stretched

  out and covering the entire earth below was indeed an architectural marvel.

  Horowitz adds: "The visible heavens were thought to be circular in shape,

  since the clear sky appears to be a giant circle. Textual evidence for this belief is

  found in the terms `circle of the sky,' and `circle of heaven.1"31 The word for

  horizon expressed this boundary between earth and heaven, as it meant "heaven's

  base," "the base of heaven," or "heaven's edge."32 Horowitz continues, "... all of

  the available evidence [among ancient Mesopotamian literature] agrees that the

  earth's surface ends at the horizon, the place where heaven and earth meet. Yet

  there is widespread disagreement about the topography of the ends of the earth's

  surface. Some texts suggest that the ends of the earth's surface are marked by

  cosmic mountains, while others suggest that the cosmic ocean extends to the

  en
ds of the earth. Still others are ambiguous."33 Such ambiguity demonstrates

  the ancients' lack of knowledge of the geography of the earth beyond a certain

  distance. Certainly they knew of mountain ranges at their borders as well as the

  waters of the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Black Sea, Arabian Sea, and Persian

  Gulf. But they blended such knowledge into a mythically enhanced geography of

  the world, which featured far-off cosmic mountains and/or an encircling cosmic

  ocean. Such haziness concerning what lay at the horizons, combined with the

  clarity of the divine centrality of their own civilization was a view common to

  Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Hebrews, each of whom also believed that their

  nation lay at the "center of the world."34

  And just as Mesopotamians spoke of the "circle of the sky," or "circle of

  heaven," Horowitz adds that they spoke in a similar fashion concerning the flat

  earth disk, calling it the "circle of the earth" or "circle of the lands," "circle of the

  four corners," "circle of the four winds," and "circle of the four (regions)." The

  author of the Babylonian "map of the world" even drew "the limit of the earth's

  surface as two concentric circles."3' And as we shall see, such phrases as "the

  circle of the earth" and the "circle of heaven" are just as much a part of biblical

  cosmology as they are Mesopotamian cosmology.

  Lastly, the Mesopotamians, like the Egyptians, held high-god notions

  alongside crude polytheistic ones. For instance, consider this prayer exalting a

  Mesopotamian moon-god, "Merciful, gracious father, who holds all the life of

  the land in your hand! Lord, your divinity is like the distant heaven, like the

  broad sea, full of fearfulness ... whose deep mind no god penetrates ... the source

  of all things, who sees and protects all creatures! Lord, who determines the

  destiny of heaven and earth, whose command no one can alter... In the heavens-

  who is high? You alone are high. On earth-who is high? You alone are high."36

  In Babylon, Marduk, instead of the moon-god, attained top-god status. In a

  ritual for the New Year festival, Marduk was invoked in this fashion: "My lord is

  my god, my lord is my ruler, is there any lord apart from him?"37 And

  Nebuchadnezzar II prayed at his accession to Marduk: "Everlasting lord, master

  of all that exists, grant to the king, whom you love, and whose name you name,

  all that is pleasant to you. Keep him on the right way ... You have created me and

  entrusted to me the dominion over all peoples. 0 lord, let me according to your

  grace, which you pour over them all, love your exalted might, and create in my

  heart fear of your divinity"38 And in Enuma Elish Marduk is: "The trust of the

  land, city and people. The people shall praise him forever.... At his name the

  gods shall tremble and quake.... Who administers justice, uproots twisted

  testimony, In whose place falsehood and truth are distinguished.... Who uprooted

  all enemies. ... snuffed out all wicked ones.... his name shall be the truth!"

  (Tablet VI:135-36, 146 and VII:39-40, 43, 45, 54)

  After reading such language one cannot help but notice how people of the

  ancient Near East all attempted to make their high god(s) sound more "supreme"

  than the rest. Below is a chart comparing accolades bestowed on Marduk

  (Mesopotamian) with those bestowed on Yahweh/El (Israelite):

  BIBLICAL COSMOLOGY

  It is apparent from the foregoing that both the Egyptians and Mesopotamians

  imagined the cosmos as requiring divine support, especially the heavens/sky

  above a flat earth. They also shared the concept of a cosmic ocean that existed

  before creation.

  And, just as the Egyptians and Mesopotamians told different stories about

  creation, there is evidence of more than one creation story in the Bible. Mark S.