# Oldest living human. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 28, 2008, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769 "2008-11-28T05:52:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/61 "2008-11-29T10:12:25Z")
So to sum up: - copperwindow makes a ‘scientific claim’ based solely on the Bible - copperwindow doesn’t know the Bible very well (giving the wrong age for Moses and missing Methuslah) - copperwindow makes a couple of half-hearted posts and disappears Well that’s converted me … :smack: ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/62 "2008-11-29T10:24:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Nice try, **Baldwin**. Everybody knows it’s turtles all the way down. Nonsense! Terry Pratchett has _confirmed_ that there’s only one giant turtle, swimming through space. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MerryMagdalen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@MerryMagdalen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MerryMagdalen)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/63 "2008-11-29T10:25:35Z")
Well, the [Sumerian King List](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_king_list) says Dumuzid the Shepherd lived for 36,000 years so that’s good enough for me! Worship Inanna! ---
**Author:** ![xenophon41](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xenophon41/32/253_2.png) [@xenophon41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xenophon41)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/64 "2008-11-29T13:40:08Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > This is the same Xenophon who wrote that I was “precisely correct”? Yes. And who then wrote that you hadn’t contradicted my assertion. > [@](#): > > I was objecting to the word “supposed.” Myths aren’t “supposed” to do anything because they aren’t invented for any clear purpose. No one sits around a campfire and says, “I will now make up a story that attempts to justify certain mysteries that contain data which has troubled our tribe since as far back as we can remember, and eventually we will all behave as if these inventions were not only true, but sacred. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.” Well, it was a quickly composed remark, and inexact. “Supposed” can mean “thought by a representative number of interested people to do _ **x** _…” And in this case, although truthfully, I had no specific meaning beyond my _own_ understanding when I first made the remark, this is the meaning that should be taken. **Poly** correctly listed Cambell as one source for this understanding, but the discussion goes at least as far back (in modern times) as Frazer’s _The Golden Bough_. Pinning down the origins of most myths is rather difficult (even with modern urban myths), but most started from oral tradition and were tweaked over time by the story tellers. There are a bunch of different types of myths, aren’t there? Creation myths, hero myths, “just so” type myths, etc. Every culture has 'em, and they all exist in a mythological construction shared inside the culture (and therefore instantly recognizable and familiar). Many myths revolve around the deeds and dealings of the major characters who/which inhabit the mythology, whose characteristics are distilled from archetypical human and animal characteristics. They tend to illustrate those archetypes in an accessible way, and thus to show some ‘basic truths’ about the human condition. The creation myths are generally tied up in a religious mythology, and because of that are perhaps taken more _seriously_ than other kinds of myth simply because the users of religious mythology are heavily invested into that system of belief. Even so, many (probably most) religions recognize the allegorical quality of their own mythology. **Poly** - I’d be delighted to have a discussion about this with you, **prr** , **dropzone** and whoever else is interested. (Even the OP if (s)he shows up again.) I’m travelling a bit today, but I could join back in tonight and tomorrow in this or any subsequent thread. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/65 "2008-11-29T14:39:17Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > I would be **very** interested in a serious discussion of the place of myth and legend in the Bibile, as brought up by **Xenophon** , and as opposed to (a) assuming the thing is intended to be reportage on the level of _All the President’s Men_ and then (b) casting aspersions on it and Christians generally. I’m Christian. I was raised a literalist, although I’m not now. It was difficult for me to learn how to deal with stories like, say, the Flood. I wondered, if one part isn’t literally true, how can any of it mean anything? I got over that with a study of how and why the Bible got put together, who wrote, edited, and redacted it. Take that Flood story for example. LOTS of cultures have universal flood stories, and some would say this means Scripture is just so much fiction as well. But it was written that way to make a point. At the time it was finally written down, after being kicked around as oral history, the Jews were in captivity in Babylon. It wasn’t particularly onerous, they just couldn’t go home. As a minority the were in danger of being assimilated. Think Pilgrims in the Netherlands. So to keep their own culture and religion distinct they had to make a point as to(Quoting Tevye) “who they were, and who God expected them to be.” So the Flood story in the Bible differs in some points from other similar tales. First off, the ark is not a ship, guided by people. It’s a box with no method of guidance by it’s passengers. This symbolized the dependence of humaity on God. After the waters have receded, Noah built an altar and made a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. God notes and approves, but, unlike the Babylonian pantheon for example, he isn’t dependent on Noah’s worship. The Babylonian gods gather around the uplifted smoke and say, basically, “Oh boy, we have somebody to worship us again, we’re gonna get fed and not waste away!” It’s the differences in the story that make the point, not the similarities. From it we learn how we stand in relationship to God, and it honestly doesn’t matter if the story is literally true. Or at least this is how I view things now. ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/66 "2008-11-29T17:19:32Z")
> [@hotflungwok](#): > > Really? How do you know? I thought it was obvious… I read it in the Bible 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/67 "2008-11-29T18:11:32Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > After the waters have receded, Noah built an altar and made a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. On a strictly suprficial level, since Noah had two of each animal, what exactly did he sacrifice? Could this explain the disappearance of the dinosaurs - they were saved from the flood but sacrificed afterward? “Sorry, T-Rex, God needs a sacrifice. I guess I could burn one or both of you - either way, your species is finished.” ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/68 "2008-11-29T18:36:12Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > “Sorry, T-Rex, God needs a sacrifice. I guess I could burn one or both of you - either way, your species is finished.” Hijack: why is it that whenever anyone clones dinosaurs, they either start with carnivores or have lots of them fairly soon? Why not get various species of cute cuddly ones first, instead of raptors and Rex? ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/69 "2008-11-29T18:38:54Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > On a strictly suprficial level, since Noah had two of each animal, what exactly did he sacrifice? Could this explain the disappearance of the dinosaurs - they were saved from the flood but sacrificed afterward? > > “Sorry, T-Rex, God needs a sacrifice. I guess I could burn one or both of you - either way, your species is finished.” It wasn’t two of every animal: > [@Genesis 7:1-4](#): > > The LORD then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. **Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.** Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” > [@Genesis 8:20](#): > > Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2008, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/70 "2008-11-29T21:59:30Z")
> [@Poor\_College\_Student](#): > > I think this would be a good thread for the people of SDMB to learn about [Internet Trolls](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)). I’m pretty sure most of us around here are familiar with that term! :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/71 "2008-11-30T02:24:01Z")
> [@Poor\_College\_Student](#): > > I think this would be a good thread for the people of SDMB to learn about [Internet Trolls](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)). Those who aren’t newbies know to read the rules of a board before posting. Just saying. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/72 "2008-11-30T03:50:36Z")
I’m assuming that there is rose-colored glass in this copper window. 😉 Where are you, girl? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/73 "2008-11-30T04:05:39Z")
> [@Poor\_College\_Student](#): > > I think this would be a good thread for the people of SDMB to learn about [Internet Trolls](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)). If you are a college student, then many of us were dealing with trolls before you ever used a computer. Due to the inflammatory nature of troll accusations, they are forbidden in every Forum on the SDMB except the [BBQ Pit](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=5). Do not accuse other posters of being trolls in Great Debates (or elswhere outside the Pit). [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/74 "2008-11-30T05:52:22Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > On a strictly superficial level, since Noah had two of each animal, what exactly did he sacrifice? Could this explain the disappearance of the dinosaurs - they were saved from the flood but sacrificed afterward? Dude, how long were they cooped up in the Ark? And don’t you guys prefer the sacrifice of calves and such? It was the firstborn calf. Anyway, the dinos got it from the cosmic rays that got in after all those stratospheric clouds condensed into rain. That’s why the post-Noachic prophets didn’t live so long. Nobody can hold up 969 years under all those cosmic rays, y’know.\* I mean, DUH. - - Yes, I heard one preacher explain it like that. ---
**Author:** ![Monkey\_Chews](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@Monkey\_Chews](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monkey_Chews)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/75 "2008-11-30T07:48:09Z")
> [@ErinPuff](#): > > It wasn’t two of every animal: Interesting! So, which animals were considered “clean” and which were considered “unclean”? Were clean animals those considered edible? ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/76 "2008-11-30T08:45:06Z")
> [@Monkey\_Chews](#): > > Interesting! So, which animals were considered “clean” and which were considered “unclean”? > > Were clean animals those considered edible? It’s in Leviticus 11:3 I think. It’s best portrayed at [www.thebricktestament.com](http://www.thebricktestament.com) Brick Testament is the entire bible portrayed through Lego sets and pieces. Search for “Kosher”. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/77 "2008-11-30T16:19:58Z")
> [@copperwindow](#): > > How can wikipedia claim that Jeanne Calment was the oldest living confirmed human? I faintly remember some dude named Moses living a good 500 years, or so my bible confirms… Probably because Wikipedia is based on verifiable facts (for the most part), as opposed to the bible, which is at best an anthology of fairy stories. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/78 "2008-12-01T03:25:51Z")
Why bother preserving unclean animals? I mean, if Noah and family were Jewish, all their descendents would be Jewish, so who would be eating the unclean ones? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/79 "2008-12-01T03:45:39Z")
Who eats bald eagles now? And yet we consider it worthwhile to preserve them. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2008, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769/80 "2008-12-01T23:08:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Who eats bald eagles now? And yet we consider it worthwhile to preserve them. Not everybody does, clearly, or they wouldn’t be endangered. Besides, that in no way explains why Noah would gather up and seek to preserve swine, which by all indication have no biblically acceptable use. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-living-human/474769.md?page=5)