Grigoris wrote:Aemilius wrote:It is important in a number of ways: The Earth beneath our feet is not stable and unchanging. The mountains have arisen gradually, it has taken only a few million years for the Alps and Himalayas to arise and form gradually, for example. If you had lived there at the time, you would have hardly noticed it happening, and yet every year they arose slightly higher. At the same time mountains erode, they crumble away, because of the heat changes, because of freezing and melting, because of wind, sun and water. Gradually, in about 100 million years they are completely worn away. The Alps, Himalayas, the Vulturehead Peak, and other mountain ranges will wear away, disappear. Mountain formation is called orogeny in Science. Human life is short, and thus we are not able to realize these changes in the seemingly 'stable' environment. In 1800's Nalanda was buried under earth, the ruins have been excavated. Even very recently several new ruins of monasteries have been excavated around the Nalanda area. There are photographs of Nalanda at the time of the first excavations in 1800's, it was quite different then.
You are missing the point: It actually does not mean shit if the earth was higher or lower, the river changed it's path, the sea level rose or dropped, what matters is if the person believes that it is the spot where the Buddha landed. Faith is a mental factor that is a requisite for enlightenment, knowing GPS coordinates and opinions on geography don't feature so highly.
There is a well established religious theory about the sacred and holy which is common to all religions, to Zoroastrianism, African and Australian native religion etc... Its thinking is usually taken for granted, i.e. that the primary Holy Object, like Buddha or Zoroaster etc., influences matter and the material world in various mystical ways. Thus we get the holy places, sacred rivers, sacred or holy mountains, sacred implements and a vast collection of other sacred material objects, like pieces of a cloth that has been worn by the founder or saint of a particular religion. And even things like a tooth that has fallen from the pure jaw of Je Tsong Khapa, etc...
For a true believer it does indeed matter that the sacred object is a true sacred object. People have been killed and wars have been fought over the control and possession of holy places and sacred objects!
You can't dismiss so easily the theory and tradition of the holy mystical influence over the profane and the material world.