The logical explanation of Bible stories (10 photos) Bashny.Net

Bible - one of the most controversial books in the world. Open it to any random page and you will find stories about the incredible feats talking donkeys and other curiosities that seem to defy reality. Or not? It turns out that the logic of religious miracles and may not be as incompatible as people think. We do not claim that any of these explanations completely true, but they are quite logical and have a right to life.

1. The Tower of Babel was a giant ziggurat.



Among all the stories about the origin of the cult of humanity stands out the Tower of Babel story. In nine short lines, it tells us how brash inhabitants of the earth have decided to build a tower, so large that she could get to God himself. To prevent this, God shuffled their languages. We well remember the story of the ancient megabashne in the Middle East, and the story was a fable. Several years ago, scientists found the time to translate some very ancient cuneiform tablets. Written about 2500 years ago, one of which contained a description of the giant zikkuratp built by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. It was a huge piramidoidalnoe structure. But the main evidence that this is precisely the Tower of Babel, is the fact that Nebuchadnezzar gathered, as it is written, "all the people of the world" to build a tower.

Due to the inscriptions on the walls of Babylon ziggurat and its multi-lingual team of construction were known throughout the ancient Near East, including the person who wrote the story of the Tower of Babel.

2. The Red Sea was divided hurricane.


The story of Moses is one of the most famous parts of the Old Testament. Throughout the four books we have seen, the first prophet of Israel is growing from an orphaned child under irritable old man wandering in the desert. But amazing happens when God separates the Red Sea to let the Israelites escape from Egypt. Less well known is that it is not the only time that such a miracle was happening in reality.

Really. In 1882, the deep waters of Lake Manzela suddenly parted, allowing a group of local fishermen to pass on the plow through Aki. Instead of God's hand, it was caused by a phenomenon known as "wind fence" - a very rare phenomenon, when the wind blows hard enough and at a right angle to the water, it creates a temporary land bridge. When the researchers applied it to what we know about the ancient Nile, they found that the east wind blowing at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour (30 meters per second) for 12 hours will be enough to create a bridge to four hours .

But you say that Moses crossed the Red Sea, not Neil. The Hebrew Bible actually states that they crossed the "sea of ​​reeds", about the Red Sea, there are no words, and the reed - this is what grows in large numbers on the banks of the Nile, but not on the Red Sea.

3. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by a meteorite.


The fate of Sodom Pentapolis so infamous that even staunch atheists have heard about it. Sodom and Gomorrah, immoral hotbeds of sin, died at the hands of God.

Or not?

Over the years several theories have been suggested, and most of them are accused in the death of urban space objects, not the wrath of God. According to one of them, the Earth passes through a large cloud of meteorites every 2500 years or so. It happened at about 2200 BC, which coincides with the period of time when the real Sodom and Gomorrah existed. Since we know that 40 city-states of that time suffered from a huge, possibly related to the meteorite crash, it does suggest that Sodom Pentapolis was among them.

A little different theory points to an ancient cuneiform tablet describing the asteroid in 3123 BC Although the asteroid fell on Europe, the angle at which he did, could cause superheated cloud of air to move back to the Mediterranean and to light the sky over the Levant, Sinai, and Northern Egypt. Every city in the world under this cloud instantly turned to hell. Just like in writing ...

4. The Book of Revelation was drug hallucination.


The Book of the Apocalypse (Revelation otherwise) is one of the least understood parts of the Bible. Its value is not clear to mankind in the course of many centuries, and some people think that there are very serious grounds for this. According to their theory, it all - just literally record drug trip.

Now we have to stress that this is - a theory, and we pay attention to it for two reasons. Firstly, there is, from a scientific point of view, to prove a link between the use of hallucinogens and religious feelings. And secondly, the brains of people undergoing religious events, looks like the brain of those who commit drug trip epic music Pink Floyd.

In other words, some scientists suspect that the religious feelings and hallucinations may be inextricably linked in our brains. Add to this the fact that we know about the ritual use of drugs in hundreds of religions and sects throughout history, from Hinduism and Islam to the Mayan religion and the idea that the Book of Revelation was written under the influence of drugs, it begins to seem quite plausible. There is even a school of thought that argues that all religions have arisen as a result of the ritual use of drugs.

5. Cain and Abel - the story of the first in the history of the genocide.


The story of Cain and Abel is like a bloody sequel in which humanity falls lower than ever, "creating a" murder. After the farmer Cain offered sacrifice was rejected by God in favor of the herder Abel, Cain killed his brother in a fit of blind rage. Although this seems like a simple story, some people think that there's something deeper. Some people think that the story is a parable of the first genocide of humanity.

Just a few tens of thousands of years ago, Homo sapiens shared the planet with Neanderthals. Then suddenly Neanderthal disappeared. There are many theories as to why this happened. Our early ancestors were our competitors, it is undoubtedly possible and that the echo of the conscious destruction of Neanderthals left us in Genesis.

Like Abel, Neanderthals were pastoralists. Like Cain, the people were farmers. Is it possible that their story is just distorted folk memory of our earliest experiences of genocide? We will most likely never even know.

6. 10 plagues were caused by global warming.


For a couple of pages before divided sea, Moses witnessed one of the biggest events of the Bible: 10 plagues. Insects, rivers of blood, eternal darkness ... how scientists could explain this? One theory is that all this could be caused by climate change.

Fertile decade with rain and good weather and then suddenly an endless drought, which caused havoc in ancient Egypt. Since the Nile dried up and stagnated, it has caused a number of problems - including the huge swarms of mosquitoes and the proliferation of blood-red algae. Almost all executions "at an early stage", disease, heat, frogs have been caused by the stagnation of the river and brood harmful insects, while the later were called distant eruption.

Approximately 3,500 years ago on the island of Thera volcano-apocalyptic explosion occurred, with so many ashes thrown into the stratosphere that phenomena such as the pervasive darkness and giant hailstones were absolutely possible. For the Israelis, the Egyptians hated, it was like a righteous anger of God, acting on their behalf.

7. Garden of Eden - a breakthrough in agriculture.


We are all familiar with the Garden of Eden. A wonderful place where people freely coexist with other species, but it has been lost forever, when Adam and Eve were expelled from it. When we think about this, we assume that the Eden is just a myth. One theory has another version.

History of the Garden of Eden is a metaphor for humanity, parted with the culture of the hunter-gatherer.

At some point in our distant past, our ancestors were very successful in agriculture. This is known as the Neolithic revolution, and that revolution is what has allowed us to create a community, city, civilization and the modern world. Overall it was a pretty good thing. In the short term, however, it meant a transition from the world of wandering and plenty of free time to the hard work, a little more life and increase the likelihood of disease and epidemics. It is understood that the culture shock has had such a lasting impact on our collective memory, which is later re-manifested in countless stories. Therefore God punishes Adam for eating the apple work with the Tree of Knowledge.

8. Noah's flood was caused by melting glaciers.


Total 10,000 BC a large part of what we call the modern world, was hidden under a layer of ice. Glaciers moved across North America, Europe and Asia, and the world was really cold. Then, a few thousand years before we invented writing and the wheel, the planet is beginning to heat up.

As the Earth has become warmer, sea levels began to rise slowly. There is a theory that while the Black Sea was a freshwater lake, surrounded by farmland. Then, at some point in 5000 BC, the Mediterranean had risen high enough to pouring cascade, flooding everything around.

According to the scientists who adhere to this theory, the water comes from the power of 200 times the force of Niagara Falls and flooded about 150,000 square kilometers of land. For the people of that time, living in the region, it was like the apocalypse. Thousands were killed, and anyone who survived thought that it was a punishment from God. It is believed that the history of this meganavodneniya passed from mouth to mouth, and eventually evolved into the story of Noah, which we all know today.

9. Burning Bush was on the volcanic crater.


Remember that time when Moses realizes that was chosen by God? Probably, not. This is the moment when thorn bush turns to Moses and turns to ashes. But physicist Colin Humphreys of Cambridge University in the UK thought that this wonderful case there is a logical explanation. According to his theory, a shrub grown in the volcanic crater.

And in one of his book, Humphreys said as acacia bushes can spontaneously ignite in the superheated zone. Since acacia bushes are known which of them create an extremely good charcoal, it might seem that he was burning without end, giving the impression of God's plan.

10. Jesus walking on the ice.


In addition to the resurrection, the most famous of the miracles of Jesus then, as he walked on the water. But there is a school of thought that says that nothing like this has ever happened. According to this theory, Jesus really walked on ice.

This does not mean that the entire lake was frozen - nobody in their right mind considers it impressive. Instead, it meant that something known as "spring ice" made of thick layers of ice formed directly next to the open water. Usually this occurs in freshwater lakes warm spring - conditions that perfectly describe the ancient Sea of ​​Galilee. The theory says that Jesus came to the area hidden ice, just as his disciples are still floating in the water.

But this theory has a couple of deficiencies. In the biblical story of Peter walking on the water, next to Christ, which raises the question about how he did not notice the giant ice formation. So there are scientists who dispute the theory of "spring ice."

But it is - the beauty of these theories. In the events that happened so long ago, we could never get an accurate answer. All that we can do - it's a little more carefully to reason and to think seriously about the stories we grew up with. And it's not bad at all.