Monday, July 30, 2007

National Geographic Corroborates Bible...Accidentally.

I know this is a little off topic for an evolution blog, but I found it too interesting to ignore.

In a recent article by the National Geographic, archaeologists have discovered substantial evidence of a "volcanic eruption" around 1500 BC that leveled several cities in or near Sinai. They don't document precisely where the volcanic rock came from, a known volcano or eruption. Rather, they have different theories about how the Mediterranean Sea washed the lava rock onto Egyptian soil, either through a tsunami caused by the alleged eruption or gradually over many years. I think this second theory arose when they realized that tsunamis are Japanese (I looked it up), and that back then tsunamis weren't so fashionable the way they are today.

The Bible tells of the Hyksos king that was not of the previous dynasty which knew of Joseph. The Hyksos are known historically as Egypt's 15th dynasty.
Exo 1:8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
The actual plague is recounted in Exodus 9.
Exo 9:22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.
And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field.
Some date the plagues of Egypt at 1491 B.C. That's fits pretty well with their description "around 1500 B.C.". Of course they will try to explain everything in natural terms, and I can't say that God didn't use some volcano to cause this plague (though it makes the hail hard to explain), but I do believe that these guys have uncovered evidence of God's hand of judgment on Egypt in the days of the Hyksos Pharaoh.

They've pegged the place, the time and the plague, but I'm sure it's all just a coincidence.

Friday, July 27, 2007

You just gotta' laugh...


First, read this article.

Sometimes you just gotta' laugh at the reasoning of evolutionary biologists (formerly scientists), in how they choose to interpret new archaeological findings. In this article about a recently uncovered Mastodon, learned team leader Evangelia Tsoukala of Aristotle University expresses her high hopes in this paragraph:

The scientists hope the rare find might shed some light on why mastodons went extinct in Europe about two million years ago, even though the mammals continued to roam North America until about 11,000 years ago.
Did you catch it?

This Mastodon was found in Greece. Greece is in Europe, in case you didn't know.

The learned scientists are of the firm persuasion that Mastodons went extinct 2 million years ago in Europe. Yet here one is buried in 4-5 feet of dirt. "But it's 2 million years old!", right? Wrong. Look at the tusks. They are laying right where they were uncovered (thus the red and white scaling bar above the tusks). They are inverted (pointing in opposite directions, yet parallel)! This Mastodon was buried by human hands! But...in Greece...2 million years ago???

No, this animal was buried much more recently than that. They'll never admit it, but this find dashes their belief that the Mastodon became extinct in Europe 2 million years ago. Again, they've disproved their previous assumptions but dare not say so for the retaliation they'd suffer.

The theories that evolutionary biologists entertain might as well be Dinotopia for the little light they shed and fiction they contain.