'Exodus Decoded' seeks 'plausible explanation' for Biblical events

The Tidings ^ | August 18, 2006 | David DiCerto

[trashcanbred]

The Bible is a testament of faith, not a history or science book

Then why are people trying to use it to teach Intelligent Design if it isn't a science book?

[NYer]

Ping!

[AnAmericanMother]

As C.S. Lewis once observed, the problem with these people is that they begin with the assumption that miracles can't occur.

That causes them to go through all sorts of contortions to come up with outlandish alternative explanations.

"Scientists" who bring their conclusion to the table ahead of time are doomed before they start.

[ShihanRob]

I was reading the book, Jesus Before Christianity by Albert Nolan, the Provincial of the South African Province of the Dominicans. This book was first published in 1976 and mentions the crossing of the REED sea. I guess this theory isn't that new. Rob

[Iscool]

Of course it's a science book...It's the real science, not the one falsely so called...

And that guy will Never get this one:

Gen 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Gen 1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

There's a sea up there...And it's a big one...And it's going to divide just like the Red Sea did to provide safe passage for God's Bride...

[Celtjew Libertarian]

While many of the theories are intriguing, the film raises some questions. First, if the clues are out there in plain sight it seems suspicious that Jacobovici is the only guy smart enough to piece the puzzle together.

Because he isn't the first. A lot of these ideas, the Santorini eruption in particular, have been around long enough that I was familiar with them, certainly by when I went to college (1984).

The cantor who taught Hebrew school, when my age was in single digits, once went through each of the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea and gave possible scientific explanations for each of them (I forget the details -- it's been a long time). He then paused and said that the miracle was not that these events occurred, but that they happened at the right time.

I have always believed, since then, that God has chosen to play within the rules of the universe He created and that miracles are not impossible events happening, but God skewing the odds in favor of highly unlikely events.

[johnny7]

As C.S. Lewis once observed, the problem with these people is that they begin with the assumption that miracles can't occur.

So true... once that's a 'given'... then any jackasses explanation is as good as anothers.

[Northern Yankee]

I remember someone trying to use using scientific proof a few weeks, ago one of these threads, to disprove transubstantiation.

My thinking at that time is that you don't want to go down that road, because then you would have to completely eliminate most of the ministry of Christ, and the miracles that occurred in the Old Testament.

Sheesh!

[starfish923]

Strange that science and archeology support SOME parts of the Bible and not others.
Sleazywood has such an interesting take on things.

[starfish923]

I remember someone trying to use using scientific proof a few weeks, ago one of these threads, to disprove transubstantiation.
My thinking at that time is that you don't want to go down that road, because then you would have to completely eliminate most of the ministry of Christ, and the miracles that occurred in the Old Testament.
Sheesh!

Faith is a gift.
Geniuses and idiots have and don't have that gift.

So, in the end, trying to prove/disprove faith is a waste of time.

When I see/hear men like Pope Benedict XVI with all the faith in the world, my mind is at rest. I would worry if Sleazywood started having faith. I would wonder at my faith. Lol. OR, I would have to admit, yet again, to another of God's miracles.

[kosta50]

Here is a true scientific mind: "He even has a ready answer for the slaughter of the firstborn by the angel of death: It was a lethal cloud of poisonous carbon monoxide gas released by the geological upheaval."

We all know that carbon monoxide kills only first-born, don't we? (Sarcasm)

But I would like to hear an explanation why a God who is not partial, a God who is the source of life, personally kills (according to Exodus) and wants to be remembered for that? Sin came into this world through one man, and through his sin death. God is not the source of death or else He must be the source of sin as well.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks NYer. There is one or more like this, so...

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[SunkenCiv]

Director posits proof of biblical Exodus
The Globe and Mail | 14 April 2006 | Michael Posner
Posted on 04/14/2006 8:58:16 AM EDT by timsbella
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1614957/posts

Documentary Sets New Date For Exodus
Jerusalem Post | 7-3-2006 | Etgar Lefkovits
Posted on 07/03/2006 5:26:25 PM EDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1659872/posts

[Northern Yankee]

So true...

You're among friends who feel as you do!

Blessings!

[Atheist2Theist]

What a miracle? The Egyptian soldiers drowned on a land bridge.

I also think the reviewer did not make his last point very clearly. The Bible is not a history book in the modern sense of historical writing where events are precisely chronologed in order. But it does contain history, especially salvation history. The reviewer but his unclear statement seems to dismiss the miracles mentioned in the first place by dismissing it as not being history. Bad enough when skeptical film producers do this, another thing with a film reviewer for the USCCB does it.

[NYer]

We all know that carbon monoxide kills only first-born, don't we? (Sarcasm)

Lol .... especially when there aren't any siblings :-)

[VOA]

The Bible is a testament of faith, not a history or science book

Yeah, it's full of historical deceits.
Like those non-existent Hittites.
(end gentle sarcasm)

[VOA]

just a bump...as the show is about to air (8PM Eastern; Sunday 8-20-06)

[ml/nj]

Like those non-existent Hittites

I'm not sure what your point is. It is by no means clear that the Biblical Hittites are related to the Anatolian Hittites.

The idea of the non-existence of the (Anatolian) Hittites is, so far as I know, an idea suggested by Imanual Velikovsky in his book Ages in Chaos. This same book presents a discussion of evidence from Egypt for the some of the events related in Exodus.

ML/NJ