-Caveat Lector-
>From: Kelly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: Conspiracy Theory Research List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: [CTRL] If the Exodus did not occur, there is no Judaism
>Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 22:22:18 -0400
>
>-Caveat Lector-
>
>http://jewishworldreview.com/0401/prager.exodus.html
>
>World Review /April 23, 2001 / 30 Nissan, 5761
>
>If the Exodus did not occur, there is no Judaism
>
>By Dennis Prager
>
>http://www.jewishworldreview.com
>
>DURING Passover and on Good Friday the Los Angeles Times published a
>front-page article titled "Doubting the Story of Exodus." The timing was
>typical of the insensitivity often shown in mainstream media to
>religious Jews and Christians. It is unimaginable, for example, that any
>mainstream newspaper would ever print a front-page article
>on Martin Luther King's extramarital affairs on Martin Luther King Day.
>
>According to the article, most archaeologists and even some Jewish
>clergy do not believe the biblical Exodus occurred. That most
>archaeologists conclude from the alleged lack of archaeological evidence
>that Jews were never slaves in Egypt and the exodus to Canaan never took
>place tells us something about these individuals, but nothing about the
>Bible or the Exodus.
>
>What does it tell us? That most of these archaeologists have the same
>bias against traditional religious beliefs that most of their academic
>colleagues have. Ten years ago, Dr. Robert Jastrow, an agnostic and one
>of America's leading astrophysicists - founder of NASA's Goddard
>Institute for Space Studies and now director of the Mount Wilson
>Observatory - wrote about this in his book "G-d and the Astronomers."
>Jastrow described a disturbing reaction among his colleagues to the
>big-bang theory - irritation and anger. Why, he asked, would scientists,
>who are supposed to pursue truth and not have an emotional investment in
>any evidence, be angered by the big-bang theory? The answer, he
>concluded, is very disturbing: many scientists do not
>want to acknowledge anything that may even suggest the existence of G-d.
>The big-bang theory, by positing a beginning to the universe, suggests a
>creator and therefore annoys many astronomers.
>
>This anti-religious bias is hardly confined to astronomers. It pervades
>academia, home to nearly all archaeologists.
>
>Take one of the archaeologists' major conclusions: Because they have
>found no evidence of Israelites in the Sinai desert, no Israelites made
>the trip from Egypt to Canaan. That conclusion strikes many of us as so
>unwarranted even arrogant as to demand explanation.
>
>According to the book of Exodus, the Israelites spent only 40 years in
>the desert over 3,000 years ago. What could possibly remain from a mere
>40 years in a desert 3,000 years later?
>
>And since when does the alleged lack of physical proof mean something
>never happened or doesn't exist? I have no doubt that many of the
>archaeologists who are so certain that the Jews never wandered out of
>Egypt are quite sure that there is intelligent life somewhere in the
>universe. But on what basis? Despite decades of highly sophisticated
>probing, we do not have a shred of evidence to support the belief that
>intelligent life exists anywhere else. They choose to believe it because
>logic suggests to them that intelligent life exists out there.
>
>Well, logic suggests to many of us that Jews were slaves in Egypt and
>that there was an exodus. For thousands of years Jews have been
>retelling this story. It is possible that it is all a 3,000-year-old
>fairy tale, but do logic and common sense suggest this? Why would a
>people make up such an ignoble history? Why would a people fabricate a
>myth of its origins in which it is depicted so negatively?
>
>There is no parallel in human history to the Hebrew Bible's negative
>depiction of the Jews' national origins. The Torah's depiction of the
>Jews' exodus from Egypt to Canaan portrays the Jews as ingrates, rebels
>and chronic complainers, undeserving of the freedom G-d and Moses
>brought them. Moreover, aside from Moses, the heroes of the story are
>nearly all non-Jews. It is the daughter of Pharaoh who saves and rears
>Moses (later Jewish tradition actually holds her to be his mother); it
>is a Midianite priest, Jethro, who tells Moses how to govern the Jewish
>people; and the two midwives who refuse the pharaoh's order to kill all
>male Jewish babies are almost certainly Egyptians. As for Moses himself,
>he is depicted as being raised an Egyptian.
>
>That is one of the three reasons I am certain of the Jews' slavery and
>exodus. Any people that makes up a history for itself makes sure to
>depict itself as heroic and other peoples as villains. That the Torah's
>story does the very opposite is for me an unassailable argument on
>behalf of its honesty.
>
>Second, I do not believe that a nation tells a story for 3,000 years
>that has no experiential basis. Moreover, the text has allusions to
>Egypt that only contemporaries could know. Even the name Moses is
>Egyptian (compare the pharaohs' names Thutmose, Ahmose and Ahmosis).
>
>Third, I choose to believe the story despite the archaeologists'
>(subjective) claim of no evidence just as, despite the powerful
>arguments of history and of archaeologists of the past generation, some
>archaeologists and those who trust archaeologists more than the biblical
>narrative choose to believe the exodus never happened.
>
>As for the argument of some Jews that they do not depend on the veracity
>of the Exodus for their faith, from a Jewish standpoint this is
>destructive nonsense. If the Exodus did not occur, there is no Judaism.
>Judaism stands on two pillars - creation and exodus. Judaism no more
>survives the denial of the Exodus than it does the denial of the
>Creator. Creation and Exodus are coequal Jewish claims. A creator G-d
>who never intervened in human affairs is Aristotle's unmoved mover, not
>the G-d the Jews introduced to the world. Moreover, any Jews who believe
>the Exodus did not occur should have the intellectual honesty to stop
>observing Passover. They should spend the week studying the truths of
>archaeology - that is their haggadah rather than what they regard as the
>fairy tales of the haggadah and Torah.
>
>Fifty years ago, when anti-religious dogma was less suffocating,
>archaeologists showed time and again how archaeology confirmed
>essentials of the biblical narratives. Today, most archaeologists argue
>the opposite. In a couple of decades, they will probably change their
>minds again. I didn't rely on archaeologists for my faith when they
>confirmed it, and they have no effect on my faith when they deny it.
>They will continue to find meaning in their lives from excavating
>ancient ruins and deconstructing the Bible. And I will continue to find
>meaning in life telling my children, and hopefully one day my
>grandchildren, what Jews have told their children and grandchildren for
>3,000 years. "We were slaves in the land of Egypt and with a mighty
>hand, G-d brought us out."
>
>JWR contributor Dennis Prager hosts a national daily radio show based in
>Los Angeles. He is a director of Empower America and the author of
>"Happiness is a Serious Problem." Click here to visit his website and
>here to comment on this column.
>
>
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always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
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