Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Exodus story is fictitious

The other day I decided to read about the plagues that the biblical God allegedly inflicted upon Egypt as told in the Bible. I have always had some big problems with this tale so I will touch on some of the most pressing ones in this post. I will break down the plagues and their aftermath and also point out the many discrepancies with this story both within the text, and the lack of historical and archeological evidence to corroborate this story.

The exodus of Israel (the name given to the Jews by God)out of Egypt can be found in your bible in the book of Exodus chapters seven through fourteen. According to the tale Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for a period of four hundred years. God commissions Moses to go and speak to the Pharaoh and demand that he let his people go. Because Pharaoh did not comply his nation was afflicted with a series of plagues brought on by the biblical deity.

Here is where I have my first problem with this story. In Exodus 7:3,13 and 14:4 and in other places it states that God had hardened the heart of Pharaoh so that he would not comply. Whatever happened to free will, and why did God do this to Pharaoh? Well, the bible is very clear on why. He was introducing himself to his "chosen" people and wanted to demonstrate his power through signs and wonders. The most disgusting and disturbing statement in the scriptures is that God say's that for this very purpose he rose up Egypt to show his power. In short he used Egypt to make an example of them and to strike fear into the hearts of other nations.

The first thing he did was to turn the rod of Moses into a serpent but I did not want to go into that since it was not something that was harming the people of Egypt in general. So we will move on to the next one. According to the story he turned all the waters of the rivers in Egypt into blood. In fact any water they had in their homes in jugs were also turned to blood. As a result of this all the fish of these waters died and the stink and contamination made the water undrinkable. The fact that it was blood should have made it undrinkable in the first place.

The next thing was a plague of frogs that happened to come out of those same rivers in which all the fish died. When the frogs literally blanketed the land, after some pleading from Pharaoh, they all die and were set in a humungous pile. The next thing he did was to turn the dust of the land into lice. Of course more pleading and a promise to comply to Gods demands led to the removal of the plague.

After the lice he then sent a plague of flies which pretty much drove everyone crazy they were more of a nuisance I think. Next, God starts getting down and dirty and what he does is kill all of the cattle and livestock in Egypt. What fault did the cattle have? Here is where the story begins to disintegrate even more. The next thing he does is afflict men and beast with boils. But wait a minute! Didn't he previously kill all the livestock in Egypt? He must've resurrected them and the authors of the book of Exodus forgot to mention it.

He then sent plagues and pestilence and vowed to wipe Egypt off the face of the earth as a nation. Of course, after the plagues that did not happen he took away the plagues and the pestilence and everything was alright again. Next he hit Egypt with a storm of fire and hail or fiery hail and according to this story it killed every man, beast,herbs, and trees in the field. Note this is the second time he killed all the livestock of Egypt.

The plague that followed was that he sent a swarm of Locust upon Egypt. It was so bad that they ate every tree, herb, and fruit in the fields. Another fumble! Didn't the fiery hail already do this? The next plague was three days of darkness all over Egypt. Could this be a solar eclipse that only affected Egypt? What a miracle!!

The next plague came in the form of God sending the angel of death to Egypt to kill every firstborn son of every Egyptian household. And not just the sons but also those firstborn of the beast of the field as well. So for a third time he is killing beast in this tale. Finally, Pharaoh tells Moses go and worship your God and he frees the Hebrews. But wait once again God hardens his heart and he decides to go after them to get them back. He supposedly chases them down with his army which included 600 chariots.

Pharaoh manages to pin them down at the Red Sea or Sea of Reeds depending on which theologian you speak to. And God parts the waters so that the Hebrews can cross it on dry land, but when Pharaoh attempts to pursue them the water closes upon him and his entire army. According to this tale Egypt should have been wiped off the face of the Earth, but as we all know it was not.

First of all this story has so many contradictions which I have pointed out that it is obviously a fabrication. Second there is no archeological evidence or historical records that corroborate this story. There has never been found a single sign of Hebrews enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, or evidence of their 40 year sojourn in the Sinai desert, no sign of the Pharaoh's army which is hard to believe. Those chariots were made of gold yet we have not managed to find a single chariot wheel or remnants of chariots which the tale states there were 600 of them. I find this hard to believe! And finally, the bible conveniently does not mention which Pharaoh endured all of this calamity. In fact there are no Egyptian records that allude to a Pharaoh and his entire army drowning at sea.

Also, it was customary that the firstborn son of Pharaoh would normally be the heir to the throne. But as this tale states all the men of Egypt were killed and all the firstborn sons were killed as well. If this had ever occurred then it would have ended the dynasty of the Pharaohs altogether. As you have seen through this post I have proven that the bible is nothing more than fabricated history. I once heard in a documentary that all of these tales were made up to aggrandize the God of Israel and to lift them up as a nation as well. I firmly believe that there might be some truth to this theory.

11 comments:

  1. Great article! It reminds me of the question that (I think?) Thomas Paine wrote: (paraphrasing) Which is more likely; that nature would leave it's course, or that a man should tell a lie?

    It took some of us years, after losing our faith in the bible, to come to realize that the entire thing is made up bullshit. Your spotlight on this particular section shows just how absurd and utterly incredible these stories are. They are another set of man made fables designed to strike fear into the minds of it's primitive and ancient audiences. And at the time, it worked like a charm (and still works on some today!)

    Will the human race ever grow up?

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  2. The human race apparently thrives on myth making and fabricated stories that they pass off as history. As long as we have superstitious, gullible people it is my opinion that we will have some form of religion.

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  3. You inspired me to go ahead and publish a post I've been working on for awhile. I linked back to this article :-)

    http://ladyatheist.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-many-of-old-testament-stories.html

    I wonder if any of the OT is true with the possible exception of there really being a Temple.

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  4. p.s. good catch on all the inconsistencies. It doesn't matter what archaeology might suggest or whether a volcano might have caused red water. It falls apart from killing the same animals three times! *lol*

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  5. The entire bible is fiction mixed with some history. It's like an author who writes a book about vampires and sets his story in New York City. He may mention some landmarks and many places that may be familiar to many but it does not make his stories true.

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  6. Atlanta really did burn but that doesn't make Rhett and Scarlet real people!

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  7. thank u for a great blog. as an african american living in the land of buybull addicted black folks it ain't easy. i rejected the buybull as nonsense when i was 12 and haven't looked back. i look at the republican "christians" and how they are taking away folks medicaid, heating assistance in the winter, closing schools forcinbg folks into religion/charter schools. denying women the right to choose. basically forcing their beliefs on the rest of us. my evangelical friends pray, conventionally on sunday, for my very soul, because most assuredly i am going to hell. i said if christianity is about free will then i should be spending eternity with 12 vestal, nubian, ripped, young men. another question i ask my black friends- where was god during slavery, the holocaust, katrina. black folks were doing just fine in africa before whites came, and i think the native americans would agree. european secular countries are looking at us, with our denial of real science and embracing creationism as though we have lost our mind. i am embarrassed to be an america. by the time these people finish we will all be brained dead follower of juck religion. again thanks for your blog and u have a devoted follower

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  8. taking away medicaid, heating assistance, what a leech!

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  9. When God put boils on the beasts, he put them on the ones that hadn't died. God may have killed the livestock, but there were some animals that weren't livestock. I'm praying for you. All of you.

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  10. The hail did not kill the men and livestock, it doesn't say that in the Bible. Jesus will always have his arms open to all of you, believe it or not.

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  11. At first it is mentioned that the livestock die but then after that the bible declares "animals" are inflicted with boils, animals are beaten down, etc. Therefore, the livestock may be dead but other animals still live on. Also as Anonymous mentioned on August 27, 2011 at 2:31 PM, the hail did not kill the men and livestock, just struck them down. The locusts, it is then said, ate up whatever was left after the hail storm.

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