Stoned Moses?

Was Moses Stoned? The Sydney Morning Herald (see story) and various news web-pages carried a story recently about an Israeli Psychologist who gained his 15min of fame by claiming that Moses and Israel were probably "stoned" off their faces during their escape from Egypt. He claimed that being "stoned" would account for the amazing things Israel experienced... although he didn't offer an explanation of how thousands of "tripin" hippy Israelites managed to evade Pharaoh's mighty army, and find their way out of the desert! He based his suggestion on his own hallucinagenic experiences with drugs in the Amazon Jungle !??!??!?

He writes "As far as Moses on Mt Sinai is concerned, it was, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics"

On the lighter side of things... it might explain why Aron thought it would sound reasonable to tell an angry moses that he just threw gold into the fire and the Golden Calf Idol jumped out all by itself! (read Exodus 32:19-24 for a funny story).

On a serious note (and I really hesitate to suggest that there is really anything serious to this "news" story) It does show just how willing we are to believe any expert who claims to have "scientific" expertise. Note that this guy is a psychologist writing in a philosophy magazine... not a historian, archaeologist or anyone else who'd know what they were talking about in this area.

Whereas previous generations judged the value of someone's comments by their expertise in the area, now-a-days many think of anything vaguely "scientific" as a sure source of knowledge. Scientists are treated like Priests were in the past: As someone who is to be believed, who's word goes, no matter what. However scientists like anyone else have various motivations for why they say things... like getting noticed, securing funding, getting their university department publicity... etc.

It is probably some such motivation that lies behind this professors comments. As the professor himself would be well aware, people do not share hallucinations. They exist only inside one person's head.... and yet the Old Testament says that all of Israel saw, and were to remember the same amazing things that God did for them. These were not private Hallucinations like the professor claimed to experience in his own drug usage (hmm...) but events which thousands of people experienced at the same time in the same way.

Anyway, why not point the article out to people at work & have a laugh. It might actually give you the chance to describe some of the amazing things that God did for Israel. And while a butterfly could knock over the "pot-head" professors arguments, you might be able to start a conversation about our societies trust of "experts", or the reasons for believing biblical miracles, or just introducing people to the influence Christianity has had on the world - for example you could reflect on just how influential the 10 commandments have been in western society... Kinda embarrassing for all of us if it was really just the effects of bad mushrooms!