Could a book of Religion be Written from Cave Drawings


Some new cave drawings have been found, this time in Alabama. Cave drawings have been dated to as early as 40,000 years ago. The new ones in Alabama are from only about 1,000 years ago but they may exhibit spiritual beliefs from long before. We may find out in time--they are in a location very difficult to study. 

The thing about cave drawing is they are history during "pre history." They are a form of writing and the artist is expressing something. The new drawings in Alabama reflect, one scholar said, something from "the underworld (spiritual)". As is common in cave drawings, these new ones feature a lot of part human, part animal works. In these, humans and snakes are one being. As an aside, why does the Adam and Eve story feature a snake instead of a bird or big cat? The latter can speak just as good English as a snake! 

The cave drawings, to me at least, represent some kind of spiritual or religious beliefs provided to people of the time by their culture and environment. As an elderly economics professor said when I was a very young graduate student, "We can almost always predict the religious beliefs of a group by how they make their living." So it no doubt was with the cave dwellers and what the depicted in their art.

We know of no other way cave dwellers of 10-40,000 years ago made their living but by hunting animals and finding plant life to eat. The animals, in turn, were probably hunting humans. The animals had superior ability to smell, many could run faster and were stronger than humans. Our God has those qualities. So people worship God. Why would not they worship superior beings like animals?

Since animals did not speak (except in the Bible), humans might have thought they communicated in some mysterious or god-like way. The animals knew secrets, as did the snake in the Bible, they did not share with humans.

So, just musing out loud here, I wondering if some person or group might understand enough of the cave life and the drawing to put into words what the drawing were communicating? If they did it might rival the Bible as a best seller.

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