What's with the resting place of the Ark?

Why does the author keep discussing the mythology of Adam and Eve without once saying “this of course is just a myth, there were lots of other humans around at the time, in fact several million over all the major continents”?
Why is the author so obsessed with finding the site of the garden of Eden?
If it is a mythical place then it was never real. If it was real then what was it? The author keeps suggesting that it is a place where there were no food chains, where lions lay down with lambs etc. Really? It is 2019 surely there are no educated people who actually believe that obligate carnivores would live peacefully with their prey? What do the lions eat? The bible is clear that Adam lived to 700 years, surely people don’t actually believe this stuff as literally true? Why are people, in 2019, talking about magic? Magic trees which secrete an oil which stops or reverses aging?
I just cannot understand what the author is saying, why does he keep using the term miraculous?
I laughed when he wrote that some bloke went to Jerusalem and miraculously found a bit of the true cross apparently made of the same wood as the magic tree.
The central idea which he could have put over in an hour, not a dozen, is that there were a group of possible human/Neanderthal hybrids that had some special knowledge and somehow “controlled” an early society to build structures such as Gobekli Tepe. However, the question is why a super-knowledgeable culture would encourage Neolithic peoples to waste their life putting up endless carved stones with animal pictures as some way of preventing another comet strike. Clearly they were not that advanced if they thought carving pictures of foxes and wolves would somehow stop a comet strike. I cannot understand how they could possibly predict comet returns (other than a short period one such as Halley) without using a heliocentric model. There is not a scrap of evidence that humans considered heliocentricity until the last millennium.
I am comfortable that Noah’s flood may well be a myth memory of something such as the flooding of the Black sea basin at the end of the last ice age. Why does the author spoil this interesting speculation by then discussing the resting place of the Ark? The atmosphere never holds more than 5cm of rainfall worldwide. It is puerile, childish, and frankly offensive to rational people to talk about the resting place of the Ark, this would, of course, mean that sea level suddenly rose by over a km in less than a year without any clear and obvious geological trace and causing the extinction of every land and fresh water animal on the Earth. Good luck with getting Kiwis to New Zealand in 9000BCE.
Just so tiresome! Why does the author use BC and AD when everyone is now using BCE and CE?
I was expecting the author to start bible-bashing at any moment but instead he just fizzled out as if he will tell us more amazing secrets in his next book.
If he is going to write another tedious book please could he do everyone a favour and put his cards on the table in the first chapter, I still do not know whether he regards biblical myths as stories based on real scientifically-explainable events or thinks magic and miracles are actually a thing.

17 people found this helpful

Fanciful notions

This is very heavy going. Mediocre narrating coupled with a definite idiosyncratic style of writing do not make for a relaxing read. add in the fact there is actually little about gobekli tepe (though I will admit to some interesting details about prehistoric culture, and some interesting reflection on mythology - then conflated, again meaning the power of what is being suggested is lost) and a *lot* of speculation. all together what could have been riveting became a fight with myself to make it to the very anti-climactic ending.

then, to top it all off the author talks about the "fanciful notion" of ancient astronaut theory (p278 on the kindle mobile app). considering 37 appearances on the long-running series ancient aliens (from 2014 when this book was written, to 2020 - however in total he has 52 episodes under his belt!) this sounds just a little like hypocrisy. you can't have it both ways Andrew.

1 person found this helpful

Groundbreaking but mispronounced

This is a groundbreaking book detailing the Earth changing discovery of the oldest known temple on the planet. A true work of art and Andrew Collins should be hugely commended for it.
But why on Earth is it narrated by a man that mispronounces the direct topic of the book?! It's Göbekli Tepe (tep-ay) not teper!
12 hours of constant mispronounciation, if you can get past that, this a must read.

1 person found this helpful

Fantastic listen.

Mind blowing views on humanities evolution through history and religion. Well written and worthy of your time to listen.

2 people found this helpful

Very smart and insightful

The author very cleverly and carefully puts together a story of ancient ancestry and the roots religious beliefs based around the ancient monuments at Gobeklie Tempe. The author has found an objective narrative about where everything began and a possible solution to why and how ancient religious belief / control / guilt sits within us all. I advise anyone with an interest in the ancient world, philosophy and belief to read this book. There is a lot a factual geography towards the latter part of the story but persist, it’s thoroughly worth the trip.

An interesting story

The first half of the book was interesting because it was fact based. The author then went on an imaginary didactic preach about an elite tribe from Europe influencing the construction as if it were a singular phenomenon.
Stone structures exist near the location of Gobekli Tepe that predate the site, showing a progression of construction over along period of time.
We remain curious about the origin and mystery of the ancient world, but by placing speculation in a book doesn’t make it fact.
There are as many truths to the past as there are people who write them.

To much thought

This book compares Gobekli Tepe to older known sites within the area, trying and treating it as a singular site. If a more widespread view of the landscape was looked at, this building although groundbreaking is only one of many, some of which are much older. This is just humans learning new ways and beliefs nothing unknown. I believe there is evidence showing the movement of DNA across this landscape, with this movement, new ways of doing, seeing and thinking are developed also.

More joined up up thinking needed and less joined up beliefs and practices would have made this far better.

The believers of these tales come across as the same a Carlos Castaneda Followers although the author and his friends seem a little more "Indiana Jones" like in their quests.

Mind Food

This fascinating book, had me hooked., i was absorbed from the start and my mind feels like its been wrestling with some mad MMA grappler

Way to names

Fascinating subject but struggling to finish it. Very difficult to keep track of all the names.

About to do my third listen to this. Fantastic!

This is great, just finished my second listen and about to go for a third. really brilliant work!