Capt_Drakes

This tidbit of (mis?)information was displayed on a forum which I frequent. It sounds laughable, but there is enough there that makes me wonder if there isn't some grain of truth in which the fundies exagerrate. Has anyone heard of this, or know what this is all about?

From Randall Price's, The Stones Cry Out:"...there are many Jewish and Christian scholars who believe the Exodus never happened! For example, Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder of Humanistic Judaism, has contended that the Exodus was 'created by priest scribes in Jerusalem' who used 'a series of old legends and distorted memories which had no relationship to history.' [Christian] Old Testament scholars N.P. Lemche and G.W. Ahlstrom consider the Exodus 'fiction'..." [pg. 127]

BUT "...According to satellite image analyst George Stephen, the route of Exodus can still be seen today through the use of infared technology. The satellites that employ this technology for purposes such as intelligence gathering and mineral exploration can also isolate trails in the desert sands even though they are thousands of years old. They do this by capturing heat patterns left in the earth. Such satellites have enabled archaeologists to recover information about ancient caravan routes, uncover traces of long-dried and buried riverbeds, and find lost cities beneath the sands. Stephens studied French SPOT satellite imagery of Egypt, the Gulf of Suez, Gulf of Aqaba, and portions of Saudi Arabia at a 530-mile altitude. He claims that he was able to see evidence of ancient tracks made by 'a massive number of people' leading from the Nile Delta straight south along the east bank of the Gulf of Suez and around the tip of the Sinai peninsula. In addition, he says that he observed traces of 'very large campsites' along the trail.

Of course it is not possible to determine whether these tracks were made by the Israelites themselves or by other caravaners down through the millennia. But it does demonstrate that large numbers of people could be sustained in the same region and on the same route as that taken by the Israelites in the Exodus." [pg. 136-137].

Mageth

Infrared technology can be used to find anomalies on the earth's surface and just beneath (e.g. ancient cities and trails) by detecting different rates of heat absorption/radiation. (see here, for example). But if by:

They do this by capturing heat patterns left in the earth.

they're implying that it's heat left from people that may have walked there thousands of years ago, they're just wrong.

And I'd be highly surprised if ancient trails weren't found in a region that's been a crossroads of civilizations for millenia. Why routes of the Exodus and not just trade routes?

nermal

Does he claim the trail disappears into the sea, and picks up again at the other side? If not, why not? Otherwise, there would be no reason to believe it other than one of the myriad nomadic trails throughout the region.
I can't see how such an image could discriminate between 2 million people crossing at once, and two thousand crossing a thousand times, over the course of many years--which would give the lie to his claim that this shows large numbers can survive on the Exodus route. Especially considering anyone but the Exodus Jews would simply have crossed, and could easily have carried what they needed, while the Jews wandered around for 40 years with only (supposedly) what they could carry on their backs.

Ed

AgentX

Wow.... just wow.

I am an Air Force officer and I work in the intelligence field. As such, I have pretty good experience when it comes to satellite imagery. I work with it every day. I will be the first to admit that I do not have the technical expertise of an airman who works in the same field, I just manage those folks.

Regardless, satellite imagery constantly amazes me with what we can see. IR (infrared) imaging is an extremely powerful tool, and we use it a lot. Unfortunately, there are limits. The whole idea is looking at temperature differences between one thing and it's surrounding. That is why we can tell what a building is made out of. We measure the rate at which it absorbs or radiates heat.

The idea that we can see tracks of people or even a very large group after thousands of years is just plain silly. We have a hard enough time telling if people were in an area just a few minutes after they leave. Evidence of campsites along the Nile and on the Sinai? I don't think so. Do you know how many millions of people have travelled through that area since then? Do you know how many WARS have been fought over that little stretch of land in just the last 50 years? That evidence would have been erased long ago.

Satellites are very useful, and powerful. In very limited cases, we can see evidence of burried cities or certain kinds of stones. They have to be VERY close to the surface (I'm talking inches or MAYBE feet here). The idea that we could see tracks or campsites 1000s of years old is just a bit silly.

On a side note, it's amazing how fundies can warp science when it suits their needs or outright reject it when it doesn't.

Doctor X

They do the same with the Bible.

Welcome to the forums!

--J.D.

Malachi151

I think his point was not that this WAS THE TRAIL of the Jews, but that it was evidence of the fact that the same path COULD be traveled.

And my comment is, SO WHAT?

Furthermore, I never doubted the historical accuracy of the exodus story, the non-mythical parts, anyway. A story about people running away from slavery is just that, a story about people running away from slavery. If people want to be so stupid as to believe that added embelishments then that's their problem.

Jackalope

I think someone misremembered "The Road to Ubar," which was about using satellite imaging to find an ancient trade road through the desert to the abandoned city of Ubar.
You may have to fix the Amazon link...
The Road To Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands
And the transcript of the Nova episode: Lost City of Arabia

You can read about real archeological projects using satellite imaging and remote sensing here