88
Could it be? (lemmy.world)

I always like it when the professional crazies weigh in.

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[-] Infynis@midwest.social 54 points 4 months ago

I mean, yeah, this did happen. People hundreds of years ago found scary-looking bones, and imagined what they could be from. Dinosaur translates to basically Terror Lizard for a reason. That doesn't mean that they were dragons though lmao

[-] fartsparkles@sh.itjust.works 25 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Supposedly the predecessors to the ancient Greeks mistook the skull of a breed of small elephants as the skull of a one-eyed giant.

Image of a sculpture of a cyclops next to the skull of an elephant

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 19 points 4 months ago

One look at an elephant skull and it's pretty easy to understand how someone would think that

[-] Murvel@lemm.ee 33 points 4 months ago

Lmfao, well yes, it's indeed very likely that people of ancient times have found dinasour bones and assumed it to be of a since long gone mystical creature such as a dragon.

There is nothing remotely insane about the assumption. It's, in fact, highly probable.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

There are also a number of large lizards - komodo dragons and other variations of monitor lizards, alligators and crocodiles, pythons and other large snakes, and the various members of the iguana family - that have visual characteristics of mythologized dragons. Add in the human propensity to exaggerate and you end up with a series of increasingly dramatic artistic reinterpretations of a real animal.

[-] NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world -4 points 4 months ago

??

What's insane about that assumption? People had very limited information in the past. You see this, you think giant vicious fierce carnivore. You see this or this, you think giant one-eyed human.

And those are the skulls of hippos and elephants. What would you imagine when you see this then?

[-] udon@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago

There is nothing remotely insane

reading helps!

[-] NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world -1 points 4 months ago

I guess I assumed that was sarcasm...

[-] Murvel@lemm.ee 4 points 4 months ago

Well, it wasn't

[-] Soulg@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 months ago

Really all it comes down to is the implication that it "proves" dinosaurs and humans lived alongside each other, thus proving creationism is real. That's the underlying argument in the fb post

[-] then_three_more@lemmy.world 26 points 4 months ago

Well, yes. You find a sharp tooth that's as long as someone's finger you're going to make up some kind of creature for it to have come from.

[-] Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Okay, yes. But also: dragons originated from pre-radiation Africa. Every culture has it because they all had distant contact with that one.

Iirc, it's thought that the original dragon was a flying feathered serpent and also a storm god.

Edit: sorry I was falling asleep and high while writing this.

Edit2: okay, I'm sober and awake now, so I guess I should revise my statement a bit. It is my amateur understanding, as a nerd who is not in any way a scholar of mythology, that there is a theory for the origin of mythological creatures known as dragons. I cannot attest to how well-founded this model is, but I believe it goes as such: a human culture, in Africa, existed prior to homosapiens leaving the continent. This culture is believed to have had storm deity that was a feathered serpent, and that deity was the basis of all dragon myths held by cultures that left the continent and the descendants thereof.

[-] then_three_more@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago
[-] Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago

It's honestly better if you just watch the video. https://youtu.be/cwDPt1E4_Cg

[-] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 2 points 4 months ago
[-] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I believe radiation in context means when humans radiated out of Africa across the world.

Meaning the dragon myth formed in Africa BEFORE people left Africa. The meaning here being that independent peoples didn’t witness something that made them all say dragon but rather they all carried the myth where they went.

Just my understanding of their statement.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Although I wouldn't say that the concept of a giant flying lizard is especially hard to come up with independently.

[-] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 2 points 4 months ago

Ah never heard that term regarding migration.

[-] ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago

no-one has.

[-] Reucnalts@feddit.de 2 points 4 months ago

Can you share some source about that? Would like to read more about it

[-] Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Unfortunately, I'm not a mythillogical scholar, so I'll just link the nerd I listen to sometimes https://youtu.be/cwDPt1E4_Cg

I think this is the right one, but I need to get back to sleep.

[-] ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world -3 points 4 months ago
[-] Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 months ago

You linked to screenshot of this one insane people Facebook? You really do have a fitting username.

[-] EvacuateSoul@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

Glad they took the oh-fuck spike off kettlebells over the years

[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 12 points 4 months ago

I hate that people act like we just discovered dinosaurs and dragons can't be related. The bones have been there longer than we.

[-] Bougie_Birdie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

When I was a kid I got this book from a garage sale. It was really neat, the illustrations were fire, and the author presents a theory on how dragons could have existed despite there being no physical evidence for them.

The gist is that dragons were actual creatures that were hunted to extinction in the iron age. But over the years the accounts turned to myth, and the mythological dragon is quite different from an actual dragon: essentially a hydrogen blimp with toxic blood that melts its bones shortly after it dies.

However, even as an eight-year-old I knew this was just a thought exercise. And as much as I think dragons are neat and would have liked to drink the koolaid, I guess I just don't have what it takes to be a professional crazy.

[-] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 9 points 4 months ago

Yes and dragon hunters had to be in peak physical condition which is why they often trained with kettlebells that had pictures of dragons on them as seen here.

[-] Jomega@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

This used to be me in the eighth grade. I grew out of it.

[-] xep@fedia.io 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

As a child I often did wish for dragons to be real, so I think I can understand the feeling.

[-] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago
[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago

I see what you're saying, but I have this very generous interpretation of a vague passage in the bible that says otherwise.

[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 12 points 4 months ago

I hear you. But i can probably find about 15 other vague references in the Bible that contradict this one. And each other.

[-] BleatingZombie@lemmy.world 14 points 4 months ago

You're talking as if there's enough contradictions to fill a 9 minute youtube video of stick figures on a quiz show for bible contradictions or something

Oh wait: https://youtu.be/RB3g6mXLEKk?si=fNrF8zltvVi5UOt_

[-] yrnttm@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

I don't think their are any contradictions on the leviathan and it gets a whole chapter in job 41.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

On the other hand, maybe the leviathan was a crocodile. Some scholars and translators think so.

[-] yrnttm@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

I've heard that before. Maybe it was artistic language but they talk about smoke and fire coming from its mouth, not something crocodiles are know for.

Lol The leviathan and the behemoth mentions in Job were probably my favorite parts of the Bible growing up. When I was bored at church as a kid I would reread them from the pew Bible.

[-] ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world -2 points 4 months ago

given that some bible scholars believe there are dragons in the bible (https://bibleproject.com/guides/dragons-in-the-bible/ ) there is nothing specifically insane about this post at all.

Outside of "Christianity is insane", but that's hardly the point of this community. Or is Flying Squid going to start posting every nutter thing from the Bible here now?

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

Do you think maybe there's a slight difference between "the Bible says there were dragons" and "all of these civilizations have dragon folklore, therefore that means dinosaurs were dragons?"

this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2024
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