Comments on: Biblical Plagues May Have Really Happened

By: Fosca

Fosca — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 08:43:59 +0000

Yeah, James Cameron produced a documentary in 2006 that came to the same conclusion, called ‘The Exodus Decoded’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_Decoded

By: Badger3k

Badger3k — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:59:05 +0000

explanation for the plagues, they need to show evidence that the plagues happened. So far, the evidence is pretty much…nothing but the bible. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

By: Badger3k

Badger3k — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:57:41 +0000

JoJo – the “logic” was really horrible though – first borns slept on the floor – everyone? Even the animals? The Israelites were spared because they didn’t? Its rubbish. The original is from the “Admonitions of a (or the?) sage” if I recall correctly, an Egyptian papyrus from 15-1600 BCE (again, going by old memories) which was believed to extend backwards from an origin during one of the breaks in the kingdoms (or earlier, I think I recall reading some thought it went back beyond 3000 BCE, but I don’t know how they arrived at this).

This whole “let’s find (semi-)plausible scientific explanations for the myths” goes back to a Christian group that wanted to give better reasons for their beliefs. I can’t recall the name of the group or movement. Before anyone wants to posit an (tbc)

By: Harry

Harry — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:54:14 +0000

There may be plausible causes for the plagues but this does not prove that there was an exodus of Israelites. No evidence whatsoever has been found to support this exodus.

By: Alyx

Alyx — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:50:11 +0000

Why do some “scientists” keep trying to find vague explanations for things wrote in the bible..? It’s all a load of tripe, there’s no need for money to go into this kinda thing..

By: JoJo

JoJo — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:05:38 +0000

Aazell I think I watched the same one. The show explained the death of the first born which was linked to a reaction of minerals causing gases to rise from a near by lake. The first born would have slept on the floor and so would have died. Another it tried to explain the parting of the sea, it detailed what would happen when a tsunami struck causing the sea line to recede then come thundering back killing thousands.

I liked how they applied logic but I am still a wee bit of a sceptic.

By: Rhian

Rhian — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:20:45 +0000

This theory was taught to us in RE lessons about 25 years ago. Apparently it was the Reed Sea that was parted and not the Red Sea too.

By: spiderabc1

spiderabc1 — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:19:37 +0000

Something interesting to watch on sunday, perhaps followed by The Reaping. National Geographic should be on freeview though I’m not going to start praying. At least climate change etc is real. Aargh!

By: Badger3k

Badger3k — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:29:10 +0000

This hypothesis comes around every few years, and the trend started (I think) a few hundred years ago – trying to explain the “miracles” through science. The last one was the idea that the plagues were caused by volcanic eruption (this was the horrible Simcha Jacobovici mockumentary – sorry, the guy is a pseudoarchaeological hack). The best evidence we have is that the Plagues originated with an Egyptian story from around 2000+ BCE (can’t recall the papyrus right now). Maybe this time there is actual evidence, but until it sees print in a peer reviewed journal, I’d take this news story with a pillar of salt. From the article, it sounds like its just a bunch of people saying – “it could have happened this way.”

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:34:50 +0000

The historical accuracy of certain sections of the bibble (sic) is often used by my christian friends to prove the absolute truth of the rest of the book. It is not at all surprising that certain sections of this book are accurate. I wrote a poem called ‘lies’ that says that
‘lies hang like rotten fruits
On slender dew-dropped threads of truth
in the great tree of knowing’
and so on.
The threads of truth confuse the believer, blinding their eyes to the whopping lies.