The Exodus Myth

HansMustermann said:
It still wouldn't get rid of problem #2. And I do mean the number two problem.

We're talking about two million people, not even counting their livestock. For 40 years straight, I might add. If the average of those humans produced about a pound of feces per day, that's around 1000 TONS of it per day. That's about 15 MILLION TONS of it in those 40 years, distributed over a narrow-ish strip, at most 1000 km long.

That's like fifteen thousand tons, or like 15,000,000 kg of crap per km. If those Jews were walking in a column 1 km wide, that's still 15 kg of crap per square metre. Assuming that density of crap is around the same as water (sometimes it floats), that's about a centimetre and a half layer of crap. (That the guys at the back of the column would be walking in :p) Or about 0.6 inches of crap, for you imperials.

Add the cattle and you can probably double that.

Add all the *ahem* watering those millions of people and cattle would do, and the fact that that contains nitrates.

Forget finding relics. You'd have the most fertile strip of land, right across the desert :p
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Puts Isaiah 40:3 in a whole new light.
 
Rincewind said:
Good point MG1962.

But, as you point out, these days there are those who treat the story as fact.

I figured I'd try to puncture their balloon...
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But that was why I was not overly impressed with your OP. The balloon that is Exodus got punctured 200 years ago. Most of your arguments have been self evident for a long time. About the only real interest anyone has in Exodus these days is what is the origins of the story.
 
Rincewind said:
Jimbob,

Thanks for your contribution.

I was looking for a quick comparison - your data is so much better!
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Actually, looking at your sums again, I think mine are very conservative.

ETA: (Complete rewrite)


600,000 "men"
equal number of women
Stable population
50% infant mortality so 50% of population under 5
but then you have the remaining "children" 5-13, say, with a high mortality rate too
so well over 1.2-million under the age of 5. Say 30% post-infant children and 20% "adults" (I have NO idea if this is reasonable).

However you then get a population of about 5-million, and 2.5-million under 5.

and 2.5-million infant deaths every 5-years.

Add in the child and adult death rate and you are looking at a lot of remains.
 
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MG1962 said:
And John Stewart would not be that far from the truth. The OT is about setting up for the NT. And I dont see how how the nature of the audience negates the value of the document. Remember the Illiad was written for a bunch of drunk thugs. Does knowing that devalue the work that was done?
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OTH, I very seldom have to put up with people trying to make my marriage illegal, or offer me and my partner violence in public, because of their interpretation of a passage from the Illiad...

We might be using the word, "value", differently.
 
jimbob said:
MG1962 - I think there are examples in the US and Ireland in particular where people could argue that large proportions of the population are adversely affected by the religious views of others. Especially in the area of family planning.
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Do you feel though that fits the description of "all manner of tribulations"
 
jimbob said:
Actually, looking at your sums again, I think mine are very conservative. 1-million births and infant deaths every five years plus the rest.
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Well, what else did they have for entertainment?

I'll bet that TV and the Internet were very poor back in the day.

I feel sure that fast broadband must have been in short supply - especially in the desert.
 
Slowvehicle said:
OTH, I very seldom have to put up with people trying to make my marriage illegal, or offer me and my partner violence in public, because of their interpretation of a passage from the Illiad...

We might be using the word, "value", differently.
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But people hijacking a 2500 year old book for their own agenda is not the book or the authors of that books fault.
 
Leumas said:
Indeed!!!

...
Why do you think the bit about the Magi in the Jesus tale was there when it was utterly and totally meaningless and contributes nothing to the story other than to prove that Jesus really loved gold and that he does not know how to design GPS systems effectively and that he is a coward who loves to see massacres of children?

...[/URL].
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.
Ya gots to re-define the story to "We, in the East, have seen His star..."
:)
 
MG1962 said:
And wooooooooosh, there go the goal posts



Still waiting for you to show me how you are a victim. Unless you are going claim you are old enough to have been impacted by one of the Crusades.
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.
I do not have to be victimized personally to notice the potential for victimization of others.
When I'm walking along the street in the evening, the debris in the street is of no danger to me, but can be a problem to the cars passing, so I clean it up if I can do that safely.
That's what I do.
I don't let the gate here slam shut when I've passed through it. I close it. Were I living next to it as some do, the constant slamming of the gate after those passing through would be on my nerves. I attenuate that a bit.
When talking religion, I do not talk to my older friends who have a firm belief on their afterlife. They're happy with the delusion. I can't spoil that.
Here, people are looking for answers.
I try to provide those, or at least reasons to doubt the "eternities" of faith.
That's what I do.
 
MG1962 said:
But people hijacking a 2500 year old book for their own agenda is not the book or the authors of that books fault.
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OTH, the intent of the collectors, editors, and redactors of the Boy's Big Book O' Stories About 'god' was, to all appearances, to lay down the Law (as it were); and to provide justifictionalization for their mores inthenamma'god'.

Pert' much SOP down at the First Metho-Bapterian Church of Jesus, 'god', and the Latter-Day Advent (Arkansas Synod)TM.

Illiad/Odyssey? Not so much.
 
I Ratant said:
.
I do not have to be victimized personally to notice the potential for victimization of others.
When I'm walking along the street in the evening, the debris in the street is of no danger to me, but can be a problem to the cars passing, so I clean it up if I can do that safely.
That's what I do.
I don't let the gate here slam shut when I've passed through it. I close it. Were I living next to it as some do, the constant slamming of the gate after those passing through would be on my nerves. I attenuate that a bit.
When talking religion, I do not talk to my older friends who have a firm belief on their afterlife. They're happy with the delusion. I can't spoil that.
Here, people are looking for answers.
I try to provide those, or at least reasons to doubt the "eternities" of faith.
That's what I do.
Click to expand...

:bigclap

You're ever in this neck of the woods, first round's on me.
 
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