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PDRugby OP t1_ivlc2ii wrote

So I did not expect the vehement responses here, but as another commenter pointed out, this topic was apparently covered on the Joe Rogan Experience and disagrees with what I have posted here.

While I did post this as a "fact", it is evidently disputed, and so in lieu of being able to edit the title, please add "Many Scholars Believe that..." to the beginning of my post when you read it.

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maciver6969 t1_ivln7vf wrote

I agree there is just too much unknown to call it definitive fact, but most of the scholars are just using occum's razor to explain it. They have said that about a great many previously thought to be fiction, so I hold judgement back.

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DonutCola t1_ivn6ftc wrote

Don’t fucking listen to the idiots telling you to listen to joe rogan as their argument

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sennbat t1_ivm0byv wrote

People dispute that the holocaust happened, the existence of dispute isn't what I'd go by in terms of wondering whether something happened, historically.

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DevilsWelshAdvocate t1_ivm7s07 wrote

What relevance does that hold here?

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sennbat t1_ivmajzr wrote

Just pointing out that "thing is disputed" is not a good reason to stop treating it like a fact, by itself, and providing an example.

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hudson2_3 t1_ivmguap wrote

But which one is the fact in what has been posted here? That Plato invented Atlantis, or that he didn't? There is no conclusive proof either way.

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sennbat t1_ivmiari wrote

There's no conclusive proof of anything in history, only preponderance of evidence.

And the preponderance of evidence is that Plato invented Atlantis. It first historical appearance is in Timaeus, where it is explicitly allegorical, among other fictional accounts. His student, Aristotle, explicitly talks about it being a fictional account used to make a philosophical point. Even Athens, which is a real place, is pretty explicitly fictionalized for the story.

There is zero mention of Atlantis anywhere in history prior to Plato's description, despite him describing a place that absolutely would have been worthy of mention. The sources that talk about it after he died all point to him as the originator of the tale. The things that happen in the story are also, y'know, literally physically impossible.

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hudson2_3 t1_ivmjx7f wrote

We can say that the preponderance of evidence is that Plato came up with the story which uses Atlantis as an example of things not lasting. In a time when very little was written down we have no way of knowing where he got his ideas from.

Comparing that to an event that was filmed is bonkers.

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