Hermione Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Anthony Wrote:

>
> However, if you really
> > want to understand the subject, then
> generalities
> > are not going to help you at all.
>
> Generalities ... ??



Yes, looking for the "source of Egyptian religion" is like looking for the "source of modern appliances". The sources are too numerous to make any kind of meaningful generalization.



>
> Every deity
> > needs to be examined individually... and that
> has
> > been done.
>
> As I understand it, though, this is a continuing
> process; new theories and interpretations are
> presented, considered, discussed, and then perhaps
> amended in the light of other theories and
> interpretations. It would surely be impossible to
> state that studies of AE deities and religious
> thought had ever reached a definitive point ...
>

I never said they did. I said that one must look at each deity individually, rather than looking at them all as some kind of homogeneous group with a single root source. History is never as simple as alternative historians would like us to think it is. Von Daniken thrived on this kind of simplistic overview of the genesis of deities, remember. "All the gods were based on space aliens who visited our planet". Hogwash. Not only were all of them not based on that, but NONE of them were based on that. When you start to look into the enormous amount of detailed information we have on the specific deities, you start to realize these overgeneralized "theories" simply don't hold water. Avoiding the specifics will leave room for enormous error.

Anthony

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him think.