Bobzammel

Anybody think that many of the biblical disasters could be explained by natural phenomena?
There has been a theory that perhaps the Exodus was aided by either a Volcano eruption or perhaps anthrax(The latter of which would account for the plaques). Natural phenomena might have also played a role in Sodom and Gommorah, as the archaeological findings at what is thought to be the cities show that it probably suffered little more than an Earthquake and possible fire.
It's been well established that many disasters are in fact natural, due to placement(Ring of fire) or so the world can keep going...not divine punishments.
Any thoughts?

WWSD

I have doubts many of those biblical disasters even happened.

I remember watching that silly special on Noah that TLC (I think) aired a while back and thinking how ludicrous the scenarios were.

The volcanic eruption may have timed right, but the bible clearly states that the Isrealites had lots of cattle when they left Egypt. So if we are going to blame the eruption on one of the cattle killing plagues in egypt, we're going to have to use divine intervention anyway in order to save the Isrealite's cattle.


Additionally, there is no evidence to support the Exodus scenario altogether. But I think that is better suited to archeaology, a field which I am not very familiar with.

I don't remember any of the other little theories put forth by that special, but I remember thinking that they were all pretty far fetched.

And as for Sodom and Gommorah, beats the hell outa me.

happyboy

i agree with WWSD. i don't even think the biblical disasters ever occured.

happyboy

Butters

There is no need to look for any explanation for the Exodus, as it never occured. As for Sodom and Gomorah, it should be no suprise that your city burns up when you build it directly on top of a vast sulphur deposit!

Bobzammel

....and also Lot's wife changed into Salt can be explained by all the salt deposits--some of whom resemble shrouded humans--near Sodom. (Apparentally "looking back" at something horrible was also mentioned in many Greek myths).
I've also read that Romans and early Christians also believed that the eruption of Vesuvius was divine judgement upon Rome for the cities's heavy paganism and prostitution.
Come to think of it, almost every major disaster, invasion etc. has been blamed on a divine judgement or influence of some kind. We saw it recently with 9/11, with both Fallwell and Bin Laden stating it was God's judgement on America.

Undercurrent

I think Bobzammel's scenario is quite likely.

Big, but perfectly natural, disaster in Sodom and Gommorah due to being built in shitty place. That era's Jerry Falwell starts going on and on about how the disaster was the fault of the pagan abortionist homosexuals. A legend is born.

You have to be a talented author to come up with a good story about divine wrath from whole cloth, but any boob can tack a theological meaning and some extra, less than true, "facts" to real-life events.

m.

Wyz_sub10

I think many disasters and events from the bible can be explained through natural events. But most of those events never took place to begin with.

As Butters noted, the Exodus never happened (as least as described in the bible), nor did Noah's flood. There really aren't many things to explain once you realize they never happened.

DamagedGoods

I saw something on the Discovery Channel (I think) about a volcanic explosion causing the plagues of Egypt and the parting of the Red (Reed?) Sea. They ended up doing a lot of hand-waving, because they tried to explain all the plagues and events of the Exodus as if they were literally and completely true, and one volcanic eruption would not (IMHO) be able to cause all these events.

For example, the plague of darkness was supposed to be caused by the ash plume from the explosion, but the parting of the Reed Sea - days later - was caused by the tidal wave. That didn't work for me because - last I checked - tidal waves tend to propagate much faster than airborne ash plumes over distances of hundreds of miles.

Most (well, ok, all) of the plague descriptions are just so specific that I just can't accept them as factual accounts, so trying to explain them with natural phenomena is just silly to me anyhow. As others have stated, I suspect that they might have origins in actual events, but the story just became 'better and better' each time it was told.

DamagedGoods

Is that a serious statement? I find it hard to believe that two villages would be built on top of a big-ass raw sulfur deposit. Do deposits that big actually appear often? And could they be set on fire and burn?

Recon Chimp

I saw a special on the Discovery channel a while back and it showed where Sodom and Gommorah used to be. They said that they found vertical sulfur deposits and said "Obviously they were driven into the ground from the sky" or something.