 Author |
 Post
|
 |
|
Jessie Giles
Joined: May 27, 2003
Posts: 9
Poster Rank:
Soft-spoken
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Female & 24
Country: Australia
Province/State: Northern Territory
City: Darwin
|
Mythical creatures
February 21, 2005 - 11:42 AM
|
|
Does any one believe that creatures such as mermaids, unicorns, etc have ever lived on this earth?
I am just interested if in your cultures there are stories of such creature. I only thought mermaids where from the northern hemisphere, but when I went to an indigenous community in arnhemland, northern territory, australia, I saw that mermaids are a mythical creature among the people there and that they were dipicted in stories and cave art that goes back thousands and thousands of years before any one invaded this country!!!
Any way what do you people think?
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
David Martin
Joined: Dec 21, 2004
Posts: 1
Poster Rank:
Tongue-tied
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 28
Country: United States
Province/State: Missouri
City: Savannah
|
Re: Mythical creatures
February 22, 2005 - 04:05 AM
|
|
I took a classical mythology clas in college and creatures like this were frequently the topic of conversation. There are many etiological explanations for the origins of suchs mythological creatures. Too many to even get into in this post. Check out a Classical Mythology 101 book from a library and it will be cholk full of details about this stuff.
I personally dont think they ever existed because the fossil record has failed to produce anything resembling a mythological beast. However, I think they are very interesting to read about.
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Ben
Joined: Jan 31, 2005
Posts: 7
Poster Rank:
Soft-spoken
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 27
Country: Australia
Province/State: Victoria
City: Melbourne
|
Re: Mythical creatures
February 22, 2005 - 08:52 AM
|
|
i believe as with all myth they have been developed over time form an orignal true story.
dwm376s, u said that no fossil record has been found? so are you telling me that every creature ever to exist on earth has been discovered? i doubt it - its a far stretch of the imagination to believe in mermaids, but if many cultures across the planet over htousands of years all of whom most likely ahd zero contact with each other all produce portrayls of similar creatures? something in there has to be based on fact.
if this civilisation dies out and the next one finds historical remarks about a whale but never find any fossils, are they going to assume that they are mythical? mermaids might have been a step in evolution that never worked out, like neanderthals (spelling?) it is hard to say one way or another but as i said if many cultures all portray similar creatures isn't it more probable that they all interpreted the same image or creature - so personally i believe that most myth was dervied from some form of truth.
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
David Martin
Joined: Dec 21, 2004
Posts: 1
Poster Rank:
Tongue-tied
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 28
Country: United States
Province/State: Missouri
City: Savannah
|
Re: Mythical creatures
February 22, 2005 - 10:37 AM
|
|
no i don't believe the every creature ever to exist has been found in a fossilized form scientists discover new species all the time. However, there is a large abundance of mythological creatures and not a single fossil.
I have yet to find a single reference that indicates multiple cultures, who weren't in close contact, describing and graphically portraying the same mythological beings. Granted there are multiple cultures that had stories about mythological beings, but those cultures weren't necessarily isolated from one another. For instance Balkan's in Europe are full of multiple cultural groups, but they are in close proximity of each other and there is a large amount of culutral overlap. The balkans just so happen to be where the most famous mythological stories come from.
Maybe we are talking about different mythological creatures but I have not doubt in my mind that creatures like the Gorgons (medusa), Cerberus, the Minotaur, the sphinx, the griffon, the centaur, pegasus, argus, chimera, cyclops, Hecatoncheires, Typhoeus, Harpies, Hydra, and Satyrs have never existed. Most are simple a combination of two or more REAL animals.
Gambit do you believe in the mythological creatures of our time like the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, Sasquatch, La Chupa Cabra, or Yetti's?????
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Jessie Giles
Joined: May 27, 2003
Posts: 9
Poster Rank:
Soft-spoken
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Female, 24
Country: Australia
Province/State: Northern Territory
City: Darwin
|
Re: Mythical creatures
February 23, 2005 - 09:03 AM
|
|
Now I have another question to ask. Do you believ in magic?
See i have always believed that all people have a power, and i don't mean stuff like being able to fly. But again so many cultures who haven't had contact with each other all have some sort of magic and many culture such as the Aboriginal people of America and Australia and places in Africa still believe and use magic very strongly within their society.
I believe that in our dan=y and age people have lost how to use powers due the growing materialist, corporate, mechanical etc age!!
Whats your views?
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Ben
Joined: Jan 31, 2005
Posts: 7
Poster Rank:
Soft-spoken
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 27
Country: Australia
Province/State: Victoria
City: Melbourne
|
Re: Mythical creatures
February 23, 2005 - 12:13 PM
|
|
australian aborigines symbolised mermaids, ancient greek and other odler european cultures also symbolised what we today call mermaids - thats what i meant by different cultures portraying similar "mythical" creatures. i didnt mean to refer to every ancient culture being isolated from one another. my fault for not being more specific. of course many of the mythical creatures are fabrications (i reckon most of the religious based ones are)but the point i was trying to make is that the possibility of mythical creatures being created from truth and being misinterpreted over the years is not that far fetched.
about modern day mythical creatures? do not have enough time or energy right now to explain what i beleive in- and frankly i doubt anyone would even understand let alone believe in what i have to say.lets just say through personal experiences i have developed a unique perspective on many things,
modern day mythical creatures, do i believe in them; as far as i could tell bigfoot, yetti's sasquatch and the other one are all the same thing just different names (cyclone typhoon, hurricane) and then there is the loch ness monster - jury still out on that one - so modern day mythical creatures - do they exist?
long answer yes (attached with a but..)
short answer no (attached with an if..)
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
David Martin
Joined: Dec 21, 2004
Posts: 1
Poster Rank:
Tongue-tied
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 28
Country: United States
Province/State: Missouri
City: Savannah
|
Re: Mythical creatures
February 24, 2005 - 02:19 AM
|
|
Magic? No.
Miracles? Yes!
I don't believe in any of the magic stuff that you read about. For instance Native American Medicine Men and other similar types from indigenous cultures around the globe, used "magic" to heal people and tell them about things that were going to happen in the future. I don't believe they had any real "magic"
Technology was so limited then that if someone could by chance make predictions about the future, or rub a magical potion on someone sickly, and be right occasionly they might be considered magical.
Other types of magic that I think are hoaxes include things like telepathy, people that claim they can speak with ghosts or the dead, etc.
That being said I do believe in miracles, things that happen in which there is simply no logical explanation for. You hear of stories in which a man might have his car jacked up working underneath and the jack fails and the car falls on him. Then his wife finds him barely alive, single-handed lifts the car off of him enough so that he can escape and then can't repeat the incredible feat later on. Or people being deathly sick and then suddenly waking up healed.
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Jessie Giles
Joined: May 27, 2003
Posts: 9
Poster Rank:
Soft-spoken
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Female, 24
Country: Australia
Province/State: Northern Territory
City: Darwin
|
Re: Mythical creatures
February 24, 2005 - 06:49 AM
|
|
Dwm376s, why do you believe in miracles and not magic, if you believe that some thing can happen with no explanation as to why it happened, then how can you disregard the fact that magic or mythical creatures have never existed!
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Ben
Joined: Jan 31, 2005
Posts: 7
Poster Rank:
Soft-spoken
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 27
Country: Australia
Province/State: Victoria
City: Melbourne
|
Re: Mythical creatures
February 24, 2005 - 11:25 AM
|
|
I think all of this has been lost in translation. magic in the harry potter sense of the word or charmed, no i do not think so - commercialisation of these have killed the notion of thi sbeing real for many.
Miracles - see what i do not think people understand is that a miracle that happens is produced by shear will or a person. ever heard of the placibo affect? people believe in something so much that their sub conscious minds produce it to satisfy the conscious. the human brain is extremely complex and powerful, and we will not understand it or control it in my lifetime. everythin gon the planet is made of energy - it doesnt matter what anything is it happens on a level at which the only thing that exists is energy. "magic" is a general term given to peoples ability to interact with energy - thats all magic is or miracles.
remote prayer (when starngers pray for people in dire situations) due to religous debacles people believe they put their praise in the lord, and the lord shall decide whether or not those prayers are answered. i believe (and my stand point is more plausable, i think so anyway) is that all this good will and love put forward by the people praying does not go to an almight lord who decides for us, but is recieved by the person they are praying for on a sub conscious level - and it is how well that person is in tune with themselves and energy forces around them that determines the outcome. thats where magic comes from, thats where miracles come from, with in people and their want for something - no god, no lord or guardian angel - its all with in and materlism and modern day lifestyles are destroying peoples ability to do things like this. give me a month of your solid concentration and i will either scare you or help you.....not to sound like a corny tv add, but its true. and just for the record dwm, are you telling me that although thousands upon thousands (maybe millions) of people on the planet haev stated that they have had experiences with ghosts are all lying? without a doubt you can say all of them are lying, or hallucinating or dreaming? i know i aint a genius( well define a genius and i will confirm or deny  ) but i know what i have seen and heard and i am not lying, nor was i dreaming or hallucinating.
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Jessie Giles
Joined: May 27, 2003
Posts: 9
Poster Rank:
Soft-spoken
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Female, 24
Country: Australia
Province/State: Northern Territory
City: Darwin
|
Re: Mythical creatures
February 25, 2005 - 04:01 AM
|
|
HERE HERE!!!
Well put and too true!!
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Ben
Joined: Jan 31, 2005
Posts: 7
Poster Rank:
Soft-spoken
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 27
Country: Australia
Province/State: Victoria
City: Melbourne
|
Re: Mythical creatures
February 28, 2005 - 05:06 AM
|
|
All i know is that when it comes to discussions on politics, or peace and conflict or human rights i tend to get my arguments torn apart because i do not know enough about a subject - but in this one i think i am a bit better off
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Sanja Menicanin
Joined: Oct 5, 2004
Posts:
Poster Rank:
Tongue-tied
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Female, 22
Country: Canada
Province/State: Ontario
City: Toronto
|
Re: Mythical creatures
February 28, 2005 - 11:08 AM
|
|
Great post gambit1982, very interesting view on miracles and magic.
To add on to your point about ghosts. I agree that sometimes people will look upon those types of ideas (ie ghosts, etc) as hallucinations or insanity to avoid dealing with something so complex that they can't answer it right away.
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
David Martin
Joined: Dec 21, 2004
Posts: 1
Poster Rank:
Tongue-tied
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 28
Country: United States
Province/State: Missouri
City: Savannah
|
Re: Mythical creatures
March 11, 2005 - 10:43 AM
|
|
sorry for the delay in replying,
I didn't say there was no such thing as ghosts, just that I don't buy into the fact that there are people out there in the world that can commicate with them. I would also say that most "ghost sightings" probably are hallucinations or the eyes playing tricks on you. You mentioned the placebo effect, which I am very familiar with. As a biologist it is one of the most basic principles in modern medicine. Believing you saw a ghost can be just an example of the placebo effect. For instance, you may think you have just seen a ghost, even though it was most likely an abnormal shadow or streak of light, but your first instinct said it was a ghost, and its hard to talk your brain into believing the rational explanation for it.
to answer JessG's last question..i don't believe in the creatures describe in mythological tales, because there is no evidence of them, let alone solid proof that they existed. Again as biologist I would be much more inclined to believe in the possibility that they existed if there was somoe sort of physical evidence.
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Jessie Giles
Joined: May 27, 2003
Posts: 9
Poster Rank:
Soft-spoken
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Female, 24
Country: Australia
Province/State: Northern Territory
City: Darwin
|
Re: Mythical creatures
March 15, 2005 - 09:40 AM
|
|
dwm376s, is there solid proof and facts that miracles have accured??
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
Ben
Joined: Jan 31, 2005
Posts: 7
Poster Rank:
Soft-spoken
User is
Offline
Gender & Age: Male, 27
Country: Australia
Province/State: Victoria
City: Melbourne
|
Re: Mythical creatures
March 16, 2005 - 05:05 AM
|
|
as a biologist you are aware that many different species developed different visual ranges to better enhance their chances of survival? in the same logic is not possbile that large portions of the human population have developed a small step towards further evolution by increasing their visual range? with that in mind is it also possible that with this increased range of sight some people either chose to ignore it (people that see nothing out of teh ordinary) and people who accept it and grow to learn how to understand these different impulses?
humans although i believe evolution has slowed down since humans have developed technology to take control i still believe that there is a deep undertoe of people that are still evolving and maybe "seeing things" is a step in that direction?
|
|
back to top |
link to this post
|
|
|
Display posts from:
|
Home
Community
