h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Unsure if this was done, but Moses allegedly taught the people a new religion during the exodus and it was during this time period when Hebrew was formed as a language.



From all over the area, from Asia, China, other parts of Egypt and Africa. While some might learn the 'local lingo' you must remember that these were impoverished people who were virtually enslaved by the egyptians, and even over the 400 or so years they were there they still remained isolated from the main population. Suffice it to say that there was enough communication between these two groups to complete the tasks, and not enough desire or need to learn conversation. You can find a lot of information about the early history of the area as well as that of the Jewish people here:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/history.html

The spelling and grammar are in dire need of editing, but it's all hyper-linked and foot-noted.



For the same reason the bible floats through these posts as if IT is fact. The Torah pre-dates the all the bibles and korans and is probably more factual than any of the bibles IF -as alleged- the current copies are exact duplicates of the original and only for this reason. The Torah, being the law of the people of Isreal, was developed from quite a few cults [from all over the area] and the YAWEH religion [from the north], and these bits and pieces were modified and discarded to suit the creators of these laws. None of them alone seemed to be 'working', and they all had good bits and nasty bits. At this time the 'chosen' people were pretty nasty to villages and towns they passed through [read: wiped out] on their way north-they were really a huge mass of different tribes. Developing laws and a common language was a primary problem that took years to resolve.


What's interesting to note is that in almost all the places Jews have settled they immediately start some sort of local organization or government in order to benefit the people as a whole. Contrast this to the lack of anything similar in the Arab world where small warring tribes still dominate, or try to.



It's historical, but not factual since they wre creating a common language during the 40 years [alleged time span] of "wandering". I must have missed the part where the populations were counted in Exodus, or where the Egyptian history details the census of the slaves or mentions that they even had slaves.

Is that a heterogeneous mixture featuring a sulphur containing compound?
Is it because maybe ghosts can possess people too. If the worst something can do is look really scary or unpleasant to someone, is that really so horrible? I mean yes, there could be trauma, but physically speaking (on a meta-physical topic, Hope I'm not going to make an a** out of myself).

Oh , not again! Oh, no! Ther thread did it again. Can't all be simultaneous input can it? Maybe it is the servers acting funny? Or parallel conversations. If so, um .

never mind allways matter

servers="infernal machines".

I can't remember where I heard it but there is supposed to be good archaeological evidence that the hebrew people originated in the Sinai Peninsula/ Presumably they were absorbed into the expanding Egyptian Empire and then migrated to "Canaan" to escape impeerial subjugation/enslavement.

I always found it strange that an abandoned infant could be found and raised as egyptian by royalty. However I don't find it strange that once discovered and sent to live with slaves that a well educated person could figure out how to exact revenge on his former family; how difficult could it be to induce the disorganized, uneducated and misdirected slaves that there could be a better life elsewhere and that it was time to leave, even if his tongue was burned by a hot coal as a child leaving him with a speech problem? Add the influence of the single and most-powerful God, some cheap tricks and coincidental natural phenomena as 'evidence' that this God not only existed but favored these 'chosen' people and they're off for the promised land.

I don't believe in ghosts, and I find it amusing that these "ghost hunters" that proliferate TV recently profess all kinds of awareness going in to a haunted place and get scared silly when something they expect to happen actually happens. Wimps. How about striking up a conversation: 'So, what's it really like being dead?', 'Read any good tombstones lately?', or what I'd really like to know, 'So how does embalming fluid really taste after the first hundred years?'

>> I think real history is far more interesting than fictionalized myth. <<

I would think that Robert Grave's 'I Claudius' and 'Claudius the God' are probably closer to 'real history' then almost all of the bible. He did a lot of research before he wrote the account of the Emperor Claudius :D

Jez

Hear, hear! A couple of my favourite books!

I think we've established that the bible isn't much of a history book. Genesis was written during the exodus from egypt [1,300-1,200 BCE], probably more than a thousand years after Abraham heard the voice of "Elohim" and his descendants had split up into separate tribes and spread out. After their reassembly in egypt, and during which time a massive population explosion took place that baffled the egyptians they left in rather a huff [those ten plagues]. It's alleged that the population expanded due to males mating with females and ignoring family boundaries on a huge scale. This in-breeding might partially explain why it took so long to teach the 'children of Isreal' all the new tricks involved with this new religion. At Mt Sinai Moses allegedly got buddy-buddy with a midianite priest whose people were already into the YAWEH scene; I can't recall the name. One can only wonder about the burning bush, the ten commandments of stone and if God actually spoke to Moses, or if it was a tall tale concocted to instill belief in the people. I wonder how long it would take to chisel out these commandments by hand, and being way up on a mountain you wouldn't hear the noise-especially with the partying allegedly going on in the valley. What a bash-it's been thousands of years and they still talk about that one!

while there tend to be two types of people, when it comes to reacting to being around the strange/"inexplainable": Those who get scared and want to run away, and those who try to take a picture of it first (then maybe run away). ...I think.
Maybe it's more like un-explainable, than inexplainable?

I mean maybe it's not just that simple for supernatural things, but that's how it usually works for paranormal stuff. Namely sitings.

"The Exorcisim Of Emily Rose" gets 3 out of 4 stars in the milwaukee journal sentinal! Does anyone hear listen to a band called "Nightwish"?? Just curious...


J_42

>> while there tend to be two types of people, when it comes to reacting to being around the strange/"inexplainable": Those who get scared and want to run away, and those who try to take a picture of it first (then maybe run away). ...I think. <<

I think you are forgetting the ones who just get interested and ask questions :D

Personally, if I find 'supernatural' * things, I talk to them, or investigate them. But then, I also accept possession, when the deal is clear-cut and I trust the entity concerned.

The idea that a ghost or ancestor would be something to exorcise is - interesting. What right have the current occupiers of a property to evict sitting tenants???

Though if there is hostility between the two levels of occupation, you might need to ge tin arbitration - maybe the local Spiritualist Church could provide some help for people who don't have access to anyone else?

The Christian Church's attitude seems to be that the dead have no rights at all - a stance foreign to my own beliefs.

Jez

* I don't accept that there are things that are super-natural, as I believe that the /natural/ includes a /lot/ more things than are currently explicable by science.

I don't even think that the gods are super-natural, more that they are a piece of the natural that humans cannot yet comrehend the 'being' of.

I think you're referring to the 'fight or flight' reaction which head shrinkers are popular for using. When confronted with something unusual one can face the problem [fight] or run away [flight]. What I find amusing is the ghost hunters running away from ghosts. Deer hunters don't run from deer, firemen [and women] don't run away from fires, detectives don't run away from crime scenes even when they're really gross, fishermen [and women] don't run away from fish.

While yes, these are all good points in their own respects.
But the thingofit is, there is another type of person I forgot to mention. While 2 in fact: there is the person who tries to fight unexplainable things, and then there is the person who isn't a person. Throw that one out there, and see- what do you all think of that? Eh.

>What I find amusing is the ghost hunters running away from ghosts. Deer hunters don't run from deer, firemen [and women] don't run away from fires, detectives don't run away from crime scenes even when they're really gross, fishermen [and women] don't run away from fish.<

Since the supernatural resides only in the mind of the perceiver, there's not much point in running!

Both and neither.

>>But the thingofit is, there is another type of person I forgot to mention. While 2 in fact: there is the person who tries to fight unexplainable things, and then there is the person who isn't a person. <<

>>Throw that one out there, and see- what do you all think of that? Eh. <<



I would if I understood what you meant...

Jez - off for the weekend...

very good,
but there also is the unexplainable person who you just can't figure out but your not really trying hard either.


J-42