Re: Seven Encampments (to Farrell)
Ralph Nielsen (nielsen@uidaho.edu)
Tue, 22 Apr 1997 14:20:19 -0700
FARRELL
>You like to ask "how" with reference to the origin of the universe, so I
>will return the favor. HOW could the Israelites have broken camp and
>traveled on seven times and still have been in a geographical region known
>as Moserah that was located on a Penninsula that was only about 100 miles
>wide at its widest part?
>
>(DAVE 4/22) Farrell: No one is suggesting this is the case, although,
>without knowing Moserath's location, I can't see how you can make any valid
>point whatsoever. I suggested that they could have returned to whatever
>Moserath was. On what grounds are you suggesting that they should or would
>have gone in a straight line?
>Still waiting for you to show this as a true contradiction.
>
FARRELL
> It's ridiculous to think that 2.5 to 3 million
>people could wander in a region like this for 40 years without accidentally
>finding their way out.
>
>(DAVE 4/22) Farrell: "Ridiculous"? Why is that? How fast do you suppose
>a group like this would have moved? What was their "mission" in the desert?
> Did they know where they were going? If not, how could they have known
>where to go? What were there circumstances in this desert? Were they
>avoiding enemies? Did they go where there was food or water or safety or
>easy passage..., and not necessarily in a regimented path? A lot of valid
>questions as to why they could possibly have been in the desert for so long
>a period of time. Until we know the answers and address these questions
>satisfactorily, it isn't necessarily "ridiculous".
RALPH NIELSEN
Now I know why Dave snipped the Bible quotation in my other posting. I
quoted a reference that appears frequently throughout the book of Exodus.
But Dave pretends that 3 million people, the Children of Israel, wandered
around and around in a 100 mile wide desert for 40 years before they found
their way across. That's 2 1/2 miles per year, when a normal person has no
trouble walking 2 1/2 miles per hour! But Dave naively asks, "How could
they have known where to go?"
Because "Yahweh went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead
them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light,
so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud
by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the
people" (Exodus 13:21-22).
That is what Dave snipped out of my other posting. He doesn't want you to
know that the whole Exodus tale is nothing but a cock and bull story.