Rama Setu Bridge

indian_boy

just came on the news. the rama setu bridge [explained below] has been found by NASA sattellites. What other parts of the hindu religion could actually be real? Did indians discover the art of flight even before Da Vinci's drawings [flying chariots]. Does indian religion hint at mutation, evolution, and Genetically Modified Organisms [blue skin [many gods], elephant heads [ganesh], the monkey god [hanuman]? i'm still an atheist, but this find is interesting.

Okay well the Rama Setu bridge was the bridge made by Rama [the god]'s vaanar soldiers to help cross from south india to Sri Lanka, in an attempt to save Sita [his wife]. i think that's explanation enough?

well i just wanted to post this up cuz its an interesting piece of news. if u wanna discuss.....

Thegodzero

link?

MoP

Well if you consider that a lot of religious scripture and historical writing is actually made up of pieces of real history which has been embellished over the years, finding the source of something like this isn't that unlikely or surprising really.

What would be surprising is if they found that it had been made of carbon nanotubes or something and dates to 1,000,000 years ago.

Rick Stirling

Ach, we used to have one between Norn Irn and Scotland made by Finn.

And the bricks were really cool.

indian_boy

MoP, u've got a very good point there [the same one i follow to maintain my atheist point of view]. but wat i was trying to say was, if the bridge was based on historical happenings, and is actually man-made, perhaps our ideas of flying chariots etc. etc. are also based on some fact? it'd be interesting to find out how much of hinduism is real...

as for the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam's_Bridge
[i see that it's called Adam's Bridge aswell? just wondering why? wanna know the christian/jewish aspect of this land-bridge.]
i had another link. but i've lost it now i'll post it if i find it
u can aslo google-map the Rama Setu Bridge.

oh, bit more info:
"They say that the project will destroy an ancient chain of shoals known as Adam’s Bridge, which Hindus believe was built by an army of monkeys to allow Lord Rama to cross to Lanka to rescue his abducted wife. They are also protesting on environmental grounds, arguing that the 30-mile string of limestone shoals, also known as Ram Sethu, protected large parts of India from the 2004 tsunami." news papers.

Snowfly

Yeah i read about this a couple years back. Interesting stuff and it fires up the imagination...

Well, the ram setu i know was a floating bridge...Adam's Bridge is a coral reef, and i don't think anyone can prove it's more than a natural occurrence (i.e. man-made), although a highly unlikely one. But it happens.

For me, this is another case of people projecting their beliefs on any phenomenon that will have them. Looking for evidence after the fact. I just don't know if this proves the Ramayana actually took place, but that's not important. If it has the same unifying effect on Hindus as the digging up Jesus' death shroud did on Christians and actually leads to extra spirituality and not religious zealotism, or at least leading people to take an interest in india's gorgeous culture, then I have no complaints.

Motz

http://www.rense.com/general30/nasa.htm

That article is dated 2002. What news station decided to tell you about a discovery 5 years ago?

I don't mean to be a jerk or anything but I can't understand why people are so amazed at landmarks mentioned in religious text. It's kinda a big 'duh' part of the texts are based on fact. There were floods, Atlantis existed, the red sea had a sand bar, etc etc.. Sorry if it's mean to say that, but isn't it obvious they would write about things that existed at the times?

also from the wiki:

"Rama Setu IS a natural formation: American space agency NASA has said that the structure of sand bars and rocks situated in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka, known as Ram Sethu or Adam's Bridge in maps, is a natural phenomenon and not a man-made structure. This was announced on Saturday by N K Raghupathy, CEO, Sethusamudram Corp Ltd, at a press conference when he revealed the contents of an email received in this regard from NASA's Johnson Space Centre. A few days back, the company sent an email to NASA to know whether Ram Sethu was a man-made structure."

So.. it's kinda up for debate huh? Also I don't get the floating chariots deal. It's a bed of rock, the pyramids in Giza are more complex and built around the same time, if not earlier no?

Daz

[ QUOTE ]
the rama setu bridge has been found by NASA sattellites.

[/ QUOTE ]

According to NASA, not only have they been photographing this landmark for years, but it has 3 ship channels carved through it. In a nutshell, it isn't 'newly discovered', other than as an internet story.

indian_boy

hmm thats right this is old news. in that case i'm thinking the news was talking about some evidence of it being man-made? i'm not the greatest at hindi, and reporters normally speak Sudh Hindi [even more confusing to understand]. i'll find out. it's not normal to bring up 5 years old news...

@Motz: don't worry ur not being a jerk. I personally think along the lines of wat u _and_ MoP have said. Religious texts are based on real happenings at the time.

but yeah, i'll ask my parents to translate that news for me.