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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 03/14/2009 : 03:14:07
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Judge for yourself. In my opinion, the "researcher's" got nothing but an opinion, but no evidence. We seem to see such "scientific" explanations for completely mythical events about four times a year. (Gotta love the ABC illustration, though!)
Note the quote from the antiscience rabbi at the end. And what he objects to isn't even science, just the opinion of a "cognitive philisopher":Psychedelic Cocktail May Explain Vision of the Burning Bush, Professor Says
By SIMON MCGREGOR-WOOD
JERUSALEM, March 5, 2008
Moses and the Israelites were on drugs, says Benny Shanon, an Israeli professor of cognitive philosophy.
Writing in the British Journal Time and Mind, he claims Moses was probably on psychedelic drugs when he received the Ten Commandments from God.
The assertions give a whole new meaning to Moses being "high" on Mount Sinai.
According to Shanon, a professor at Hebrew University, two naturally existing plants in the Sinai Peninsula have the same psychoactive components as ones found in the Amazon jungle and are well-known for their mind-altering capabilities. The drugs are usually combined in a drink called ayahuasca.
. . .
Orthodox rabbi Yuval Sherlow, quoted by Reuters speaking on Israel radio, said: "The Bible is trying to convey a very profound event. We have to fear not for the fate of the biblical Moses, but for the fate of science." |
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 03/14/2009 03:21:06
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 03/14/2009 : 03:51:40 [Permalink]
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Heh, why not? 
Could it be that Moe was tweaked out of his gourd and really never left the cook fire? It's as good a version as any including the official one.....
| Ayahuasca (ayawaska pronounced [aja#712;waska] in the Quechua language) is any of various psychoactive infusions or decoctions prepared from the Banisteriopsis spp. vine, usually mixed with the leaves of the Psychotria bush. It was first described academically in the early 1950s by the late Harvard ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes who found it employed for divinatory and healing purposes by Amerindians of Amazonian Colombia. |
I note that the revered professor fails to mention the species of Middle Eastern plants that resemble those of South America.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/14/2009 : 04:02:34 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
I note that the revered professor fails to mention the species of Middle Eastern plants that resemble those of South America.
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Probably wants to bogart them all for himself.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 03/14/2009 : 08:22:57 [Permalink]
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It would be nice if the story of the Exodus, or of the enslavement of the Jews in Egypt had some evidence to support it. It's a wonderful yarn, as bible stories go. But wouldn't we have to establish that the story is true before we get to speculating that Moses was stoned?
Just a thought... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 03/14/2009 : 14:02:33 [Permalink]
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| There was a guy here a few years back talking up a High Times article on Jesus' annointing oil being full of marijuana. It was just a matter of time before someone asserted that Moses was tripping. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 03/14/2009 : 15:21:47 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
It would be nice if the story of the Exodus, or of the enslavement of the Jews in Egypt had some evidence to support it. It's a wonderful yarn, as bible stories go. But wouldn't we have to establish that the story is true before we get to speculating that Moses was stoned?
Just a thought...
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Well, yes, there doesn't seem to be much support for the story, does there? But even if it isn't true, why couldn't have been be ripped and on the nod anyway? Again assuming that he was more of a reality than the Exodus.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 03/14/2009 : 16:36:09 [Permalink]
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In fact; archaeological evidences tend to falsify the events related just about Moses' putative life (not invasion of Israel by the returning tribes).
Furthermore, we know that Genesis was actually written relatively late, around 600 BC, at the time of the babylonian exile, centuries after the alleged events of the book and more than enough time for myths to build up.
In other words, there is little reason to believe that Moses ever existed, in fact, it is rather unlikely. |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Moses was high on drugs, Israeli researcher says
