1) The link to the magazine article doesn't work. I tried to find the article myself but could only find a site for subscriptions to the magazine. So if someone would be kind enough to re post the link I'd be most grateful. Seeing how several points were not made in his post. I will assume that the article itself does not touch on these points either. That, and with the knowledge that I am possibly armed with less than all the facts, I shall still post my thoughts in the hope of sparking further debate.
2) I thought I had read earlier that the Minoan culture was a very racially diverse one. If I remember right there was 5 distinct racial groups living in Crete. A surprisingly large number given it's small size. That in its self would have to argue that Minoan culture was influenced ...heavily, by a variety of cultures.
3) While I agree that I know of no other cultures that practiced the bull leaping acrobatics depicted in surviving Minoan pottery and painting, are we to believe that means the Minoan culture developed in isolation? We know that the bull was seen as a universal symbol of virility and power. It's just that one aspect of bull worship that is unique. Unless somebody can point to more than this one aspect of Minoan culture as an example of it's isolated development, I'd have to question their findings.
4) Since the Minoan culture was one of the most commercial and seagoing. How could anybody argue that a society would not be influenced and influence what they experience beyond their shores? In case and point, the Easter Islanders who arguably were the most isolated culture the world has known was profoundly influenced by their FIRST contact with western man. They were exposed to the concept of writing and had developed their own alphabet by their next meeting with Westerners.
5) If the bull leaping art work is as prevalent and nearly all pervasive as I sense it to be, wouldn't that in itself argue against the theory that this is nothing more than images of astronomical symbolism? I would believe that an artist is more inclined to paint what he sees the way he sees it, and the complex astronomical imagery is too much for the basic relatively under sophisticated mind of the artist to grasp.

In summation I know we are talking purely religious influences here, but I'll stick to my belief that no culture lives much less thrives in a vacuum.