By analogy, we attribute disease to a variety of causes; microbes, parasites, genetic defects, vitamin deficiency, etc.
The ancients attributed them to evil spirits.
Were they correct? Is that what you are saying? After all, they saw the evidence back then, and made their conclusions. We can't see what they saw, therefore, we can't say they were wrong.
I bet you will say that this is not a fair analogy. The trouble with you is that you accept the many gifts that knowledge has given us, while rejecting a select few, because you have the luxury to.
Then, we can use the weight scale.
Can you see viruses, microbes with naked eyes?
No?
Well, they can't either. They knew some agent was causing those deaths, but for them the agent was invisible. They attributed to that agent the status of "evil spirit".
However, the historical event indeed happened.
On the other hand, they knew what storms were, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. They, of course, gave credit for those to a similar agent, like a god, evil spirits, and so forth. But also, they attributed disasters to planets, like Mars, Venus, called with other names in different cultures. These planets perturbed planet earth at that point that ancient civilizations were afraid because the several consequences they suffered. They started to make "human sacrifices" to calm the "fury" of those gods.
Now well, the English word "god" we use means a powerful being, same is the meaning of "elohim" in the bible, which means powerful, force, judge, spirit, etc.
The meaning of this word used by ancients according to their use is actually pointing a powerful agent causing those disasters.
If the agent was wind alone, then they should build temples to the wind, not so to planet Mars.
If you meditate about their behavior, the ancients who build constructions which today still impressing due to their technological and architectural knowledge, you want to "degrade" them as "savages, uncivilized, ignorant, deluded, etc" just because they worshiped planets and made temples for them.
Such makes no sense. Even today, great scientists reaching great discoveries are not ignorant, uncivilized, savage or deluded because they believe in God.
So, this is not about "selecting" some historical events or ancient scripts, but researching them to understand what happened. As you said very well right above, it was a virus and not an evil spirit, OK, such is granted, but the event happened.
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Lets use a legend or custom by Navajo Indians.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...1c0-9dc4-c0edcc1cd16e/?utm_term=.0f6afdded0b2
In essence, the medicine men were describing the mouse as a carrier of the mysterious illness.
The mouse has always been an important creature to the Navajo. It figures in the creation story, in which the revered rodent spreads the seeds of life throughout the world.
But the mouse is also dreaded as a killer of young Navajos and as a carrier of disease. According to legend, when a mouse enters a Navajo dwelling, called a hogan, and sees food lying about, he gets angry at the waste or the sloppiness. As punishment, he chooses the "strongest and finest" young Navajos to die.
The legend is apparently the underpinning of traditions still common among the Navajo. For instance, when a mouse runs over clothing, the clothing is burned.
"Almost every Navajo family has that tradition," Muneta said. "Missionaries used to ridicule the Navajo for burning clothing."
He said this "special warning" about the mouse extends to no other animal. For the first time in his life, Muneta said, he was beginning to understand why.
There is also a legend where mice killed an entire army.
Today, it is known that mice might carries Hantavirus, which is the cause of deaths even recently.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/21/us/virus-that-caused-deaths-among-navajos-is-isolated.html
The legend is vindicated. Even further, a story of water covering high rocks in a coast of England was written in a poem. Later, recently, it was discovered that yes indeed, water reached those areas in times where the poem was written. As far as everybody knew, there are no other records of such an event ever happened, but the poem describes it and was later confirmed.
Of course, like today, many manuscripts can be just imaginations written like today's poems and novels, however, when different cultures write about similar events happening in the same era, is when those records must be reviewed and find out what happened.
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