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Did mermen ever really exist?

Babbylonian said:
********. Historians, despite what you may have seen on TV or in the movies, do not live in the past. They are also capable of understanding that "recent history" means recent. 57 years is not recent. 30 years is not recent. I did not recently use my 300 baud modem to connect my Commodore 64 computer to a BBS running on Color 64 software.
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Is Queen Elizabeth recent history, or Queen Victoria, or are they both ancient history, like King Alfred, or even King Vasa I, after whom the dregged up ship was named (b. circa 1490, d 1560)?

Was the Mary Rose pulled off the seabed in recent history or was it a long time in the mists of time?
 
Vixen said:
Is Queen Elizabeth recent history, or Queen Victoria, or are they both ancient history, like King Alfred, or even King Vasa I, after whom the dregged up ship was named (b. circa 1490, d 1560)?

Was the Mary Rose pulled off the seabed in recent history or was it a long time in the mists of time?
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Are any of these interesting or even valid questions? Mine is rhetorical: No, they're not interesting questions, nor are they valid.
 
Vixen said:
I guess for the social media generation five minutes is a long time.
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To you, it's hardly any time at all...you being, I don't know, not a human with a typical lifespan or what?
Really, it's a 400 year old shipwreck being excavated more than half a century ago.
Obviously, time is relative and perspective is needed, but give me a break.
Legends being painted on old ships are still legends.
Let's stay on topic, shall we? Did mermen exist?
 
carlitos said:
To you, it's hardly any time at all...you being, I don't know, not a human with a typical lifespan or what?
Really, it's a 400 year old shipwreck being excavated more than half a century ago.
Obviously, time is relative and perspective is needed, but give me a break.
Legends being painted on old ships are still legends.
Let's stay on topic, shall we? Did mermen exist?
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People saw something, whether a trick of the light or a manatee...but they saw it.

Even the Bible mentions a 'leviathan' sea monster.

So, whilst they no longer exist, they might once have.

<shrug>
 
Vixen said:
People saw something, whether a trick of the light or a manatee...but they saw it.

Even the Bible mentions a 'leviathan' sea monster.

So, whilst they no longer exist, they might once have.

<shrug>
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No. They never existed, in any way, shape or form whatsoever. ("Even the Bible".... hahaha).

Had real "mermen" been seen in the numbers alleged by sailors around the 15th-18th Century for example, then beyond doubt - given the exponentially huge increase in sea traffic - they would be being seen and encountered regularly today and over the past 30 years. And they'd be documented. And almost certainly at least one would have been captured, whether alive or as a carcass, and examined scientifically.

A proper understanding of the scientific method and statistical analysis leads to ONLY one viable conclusion: that no such thing as "mermen" ever existed, and that the alleged sightings were either a) honest misidentifications (either of animals such as manatees, or of flotsam/jetsam, or of shadows in the waves, or of a form of invented imagery borne of mental delirium), or b) wilful exaggerations or wholesale inventions.

End. Of. Story.

(Should be) End. Of. Thread.
 
Vixen said:
CS Lewis wrote children' books, heavily drawing on mytholgy to preach a message.

And here's the thing, JRR Tolkein wrote Lord of the Rings which we all see as myth/fantasy, based on elves, orcs and goblins. Tolkein himself was a serious academian, whose fiction evolved purely as a result of his serious study of Finnish mythology (for example, The Sillmarillion).
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Tolkein's academic speciality was in linguistics.
 
Vixen said:
People saw something, whether a trick of the light or a manatee...but they saw it.

Even the Bible mentions a 'leviathan' sea monster.

So, whilst they no longer exist, they might once have.

<shrug>
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Truth - People might think that they remember maybe seeing something. They might also be wrong.
Really - We can't trust our eyes or our memories; that's just a fact.
Obviously, there are legends that did NOT exist, unless fire-breathing dragons and giants and werewolves are all real too.
Let's keep this in the realm of earthly knowledge and out of mythology or religious stories, shall we?
Like, the Bible also mentions time stopping, people resurrecting from the dead, and Temple shrouds being rent in two by God.
Edited by Agatha: 
Edited to remove breaches of rule 12 and rule 11.
 
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HarryHenderson said:
This may have already been posted and I've missed it, but Ben Stiller gives a good approximation of what one might look like even though they don't exist. :thumbsup:
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Seriously funny.

However, I think they are meant to be hideous. You know, you see someone with the most beautiful hair down to their waist, and then they turn round and ... it turns out to be an old hag with one tooth and more wrinkles than Norah Batty's stockings.
 
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Vixen said:
Seriously funny.

However, I think they are meant to be hideous. You know, you see someone with the most beautiful hair down to their waist, and then they turn round and ... it turns out to be an old hag with one tooth and more wrinkles than Norah Batty's stockings.
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Say Hi to the tooth fairy while you are about it.
 
Vixen said:
People saw something, whether a trick of the light or a manatee...but they saw it.

Even the Bible mentions a 'leviathan' sea monster.

So, whilst they no longer exist, they might once have.

<shrug>
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So what? The Bible said that some guy had gay BDSM sex on a Friday afternoon, slept it off, got up on Sunday and if you believe that you go to heaven. It's got all kinds of weird stuff like that in there. Doesn't mean it's true. Citing made up fairy stories like that doesn't do much for your case.
 
don't skate over the issue, it's dead in the water.
 
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