Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Moses: Stoner or Prophet of God?

I am going to say Prophet of God on this one. However, there are always some people out there that want to disprove Christianity any way they can. Like this guy accusing Moses to be a user of narcotics and didn't really see God as a burning bush. Oh he saw a burning bush alright, according to Benny, but it was the mind interpreting sounds as light.

"Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.

"As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday." sigh. Seriously? Someone believes this? Ok, fine. I can accept that you can believe what you want. He continues.

"He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible."

So then I do a search of the King James Bible. Guess what I don't find. That's right. The word "acacia" appears NOWHERE in the entire Bible. Unless I am missing something, which I doubt.

Then I Google "acacia tree" and it takes me to the Wiki page.

Wiki: "The Acacia is used as a symbol in Freemasonry, to represent purity and endurance of the soul, and as funerary symbolism signifying resurrection and immortality.

Several parts (mainly bark, root and resin) of Acacia are used to make incense for rituals. Acacia is used in incense mainly in India, Nepal, Tibet and China. Smoke from Acacia bark is thought to keep demons and ghosts away and to put the gods in a good mood. Roots and resin from Acacia are combined with rhododendron, acorus, cytisus, salvia and some other components of incense. Both people and elephants like an alcoholic beverage made from acacia fruit.[8] According to Easton's Bible Dictionary, the Acacia tree may be the “burning bush” (Exodus 3:2) which Moses encountered in the desert[9]

In the Quran 56:29, the acacia are mentioned as the flowers that companions in heaven will be wearing."

I next searched the Eastons Bible Dictionary through http://eastonsbibledictionary.com. It says "(Hebrews shittim) Exodus 25:5, R.V. probably the Acacia seyal (the gum-arabic tree); called the "shittah" tree (Isaiah 41:19). Its wood is called shittim wood (Exodus 26:15, 26; 25:10, 13, 23, 28, etc.). This species (A. seyal) is like the hawthorn, a gnarled and thorny tree. It yields the gum-arabic of commerce. It is found in abundance in the Sinaitic peninsula."

Note the word "PROBABLY"? So they don't even know.

In conclusion, I, an IT guy with a lifelong experience in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the ability to Google, have disproved this whole thing.

And this isn't even touching the other things Moses did with the help of God: Water from a rock, splitting seas, tornado of fire, plagues for Pharaoh etc. But he got masses of people to follow him around the desert for 40 YEARS cause he had some good weed? Whatever.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heh.

I (a fellow IT guy) found your post by doing the exact same thing: googling "bible acacia bark".

I'll let you know if I find anything juicy. :)

Adman

Anonymous said...

Exodus 30, perhaps? Making an altar for burning incense out of acacia might be what he was talking about...

Adman

AppsByAaron said...

hmmm...will have to look into this a little deeper. Thanks Adman!