Moses and a strong wind: a new explanation of the Red Sea crossing

Moses by Jusepe de Ribero in 1638. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

Climate scientist Carl Drews and colleagues recently published a paper in PLoS ONE, discussing how the Israelites under Moses could have crossed the Red Sea without getting their feet wet.

Exodus is an intriguing description of what God can do. Drews and colleagues tried to find a naturalistic explanation of how the Israelites, who had been enslaved by the Egyptians, were able to reach safety.

Exodus describes the method Jahweh used as follows:

”Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.”

Drews used computer simulations to find out how the waters could have parted. He concluded that if a powerful east wind blowing at slightly over 100 kilometres (over 60 miles) per hour blew for twelve hours, it could push the waters back so that Israel would be able to cross the sea.

Drews brings up the report of a British general who in 1882 witnessed a powerful easterly wind that pushed the waters apart. According to Drews, it could have opened a land bridge for a few hours.

Commenting on the study in USA Today, Ken Ham, the CEO of Answers in Genesis, says: ”The parting of the Red Sea was a miracle. It was an extraordinary act of God. Yet, God used a force of nature — wind — to bring about this miracle. But there is no need to come up with a naturalistic explanation of a supernatural event."

In any case, God rules over nature. He could freely choose how He would lead His people to freedom. The Book of Isaiah, for instance, states:

” 'I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel's Creator, your King.' This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: 'Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!' ” (Isaiah 43: 15-19).

It is good to remember that God not only did great deeds in the past but that He also works in our time.

Source:

Rice, Doyle. 2010. Study seeks to explain the parting of the Red Sea. USA Today (20 September).

Neandertals were cleverer and more innovative than we thought

Reconstruction of a Neandertal girl. Image courtesy of Christopher P.E. Zollikofer, Anthropological Institute, University of Zurich.



Joel Kontinen

Neandertals were innovative and developed their own culture, a new study conducted at the University of Colorado -Denver discloses. Researchers had previously assumed that Neandertals were primitive cave men who at best only copied the achievements of modern man.

Julien Riel-Salvatore, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado –Denver, has discovered that this view is completely erroneous.

Riel-Salvatore studied Neandertal sites in Italy for seven years and found signs of advanced culture that up to now had only been associated with modern man. According to ScienceDaily, ”Riel-Salvatore identified projectile points, ochre, bone tools, ornaments and possible evidence of fishing and small game hunting at Uluzzian archeological sites throughout southern Italy.”

Riel-Salvatore’s research will be published in the December issue of the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. ”We are more brothers than distant cousins," he says of the relationship of Neanderthals and modern humans.

At the time of the famous Scopes money trial in 1925, the best evidence for Darwinian evolution included Neandertals, Nebraska man and Piltdown man.

Now we know that the lone tooth of Nebraska man belonged to an extinct pig-like creature, that Piltdown man was a forgery and that Neandertals were fully human, just like us.

Source:

Neanderthals More Advanced Than Previously Thought: They Innovated, Adapted Like Modern Humans, Research Shows. ScienceDaily (22 September 2010).

Alleged: New film on the 1925 Scopes ”monkey trial”

Joel Kontinen

Inherit the Wind (1960), the Hollywood version of the 1925 Scopes ”monkey trial”, succeeded in mixing up almost all details related to the historical court drama. It attempted to describe the debate between evolution and creation as a struggle of science against outdated religious views.

Inherit the Wind misrepresented the trial egregiously. Alleged, a new, soon to be released film, takes a more realistic approach to the case. Although it also includes a fictional romantic dimension, Alleged describes the story as it really happened without re-interpreting it from a Darwinian perspective.

Alleged is directed by Tommy Hines and written by Fred Foote. William Jennings Bryan (Fred Thompson) takes on John Scopes’ attorney Clarence Darrow (Brian Dennehy) in a memorable court drama.

Alleged for instance suggests that the case for Nebraska man, based on a single tooth, is flimsy, like everything else that in 1925 was used as evidence for Darwinian evolution.

You can read more about the background of the Scopes trial here.


Source:

Mostafavi, Beata. 2010. Trailer of 'Alleged' film gives sneak peek into movie about Scopes Monkey Trial; includes local cameo and scenes from Crossroads Village. Flint Journal (13 August).

Toy car in ”ancient” rock

Joel Kontinen

Most people assume that it takes millions of years to form rocks. However, a small rock found near Brisbane, Australia, contained a toy car. In other words, it could not be much older than ten years or so, as Dr. Tas Walker explains in this brief video clip:

When a revolver became a fossil

This fossil is obviously not millions of years old.




Joel Kontinen

Many people think that fossils are millions of years old. But what if a fossilised animal – or thing- is only a few hundred years old?

Fiscardo is a small village on the Greek island of Kefalonia (Κεφαλονιά) in the Ionian Sea. Usually tourist guides remind the traveller that the island is as old as the dinosaurs that they assume lived at least 65 million years ago. Few have even heard of an interesting item on display in the museum of Fiscardo. It happens to be a partially fossilised revolver made in the 19th century.

At times, fossils can be more intriguing than we suppose. I have seen a photograph of a fossilised hat, for instance. Furthermore, a few years ago a yellow toy car was found buried inside a stone assumed to be extremely old. Yet the plastic car could not have been older than 200 years.

Skeptics might argue that the Kefalonian revolver is not a real fossil since it never was made up of organic matter. Some years ago, atheists protested the significance of a fossil hat popularised by Ken Ham. It indicated that petrification does not need millions of years.

PS. In 2002, Creation magazine had an interesting article on the stone teddy bears of Yorkshire, UK.

Bibles are being burned – but this does not interest the mainstream media

Jesus’ way led to the cross. He also promised difficult times for His followers. El Greco: Jesus Carries the Cross (1580). Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

When the pastor of a tiny American church says he will burn Qur’ans, the media all over the world are abuzz with the news. Pastor Terry Jones never even carried out his threat.

But when Bibles and burned and destroyed, the mainstream media keep silent. Today, The Voice of the Martyrs newsletter reported on the persecution of Christians in Laos. Village dwellers who practice traditional religions believe that the Bible is a dangerous book, the source of bad luck and misfortune.

Laos is not the only country in which Bibles are burnt and Christians persecuted. The Voice of the Martyrs reports on many other places where it is dangerous to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Will the mainstream media ever wake up to report on the persecutions that Christians are suffering from in many countries?

Jesus and Qur’an burning

An early painting of Jesus. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen

The events of 11th September 2001 have been etched indelibly on the minds of most people in the western world. The terrorist attacks in New York spoke of the vulnerability of America and left behind a deep trauma.

Even today, there is much that reminds us of the attacks and the heroic struggle of the fire fighters and other New Yorkers against the flames.

Seen against this background, it is understandable that the suggestion of building a mosque near ground zero gives rise to resentment if not anger in many Americans.

However, burning Qur’ans might not be the best way to heal this trauma. Although the hijackers vowed in the name of Allah, the New Testament offers a very different solution. Jesus does not call the warmongers blessed.

It is the peacemakers whom He calls blessed.

Muslims have hardly respected the human rights of Christians in Islamic countries. Often, the followers of Jesus have had to pay a high price for their faith. But even this does not justify burning the book that Muslims regard as holy.

That book cannot help them find the living God.

Although the Qur’an describe the Muslim god as ”Most Gracious, Most Merciful”, Islam does not know a truly merciful God. Only Christianity knows the God who cared so much for the people He created that He lived a while among them and died for their sins.

As Christians we have some idea of what grace is. Thus, we can (at least try to) show mercy towards those who refuse to believe in the Son of God instead of trying to get even with them.

This does not mean that we should compromise on the truth.

It is good to remember that even Muslims are among those whose minds ” the god of this age has blinded … so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ”(2 Cor. 4:4).

They do not need to be offended. What they need is the genuine gospel that can open their eyes to see the truth.