Ash Clouds and Magic Mushrooms - the Science behind the Passover

The Passover is one of the most important festivals in the Jewish calendar as it marks the chain of events that led to the liberation of Israel and its establishment as a sovereign nation. It was during this period that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (who identified himself to Moses as “I AM WHO I AM”) revealed his power in a succession of signs and wonders on a scale not seen since the Great Flood. In my next post, I will discuss how this divine intervention was necessary to shift the economic equilibrium and bring about sustainable political change. But, for now, I want to consider whether the phenomena we read about in the first half of Exodus (including the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea and manna in the desert) were truly “Acts of God” at all.

Firstly, let’s consider the plagues. After Pharaoh refused to allow the enslaved Israelites to leave Egypt, God inflicted a series of plagues on the Egyptians until Pharaoh finally relented (Exodus 7-12). In the Ancient World, where scientific discovery was still in its infancy, these incredible phenomena would certainly have been interpreted as having a miraculous and supernatural source. However, as the news article at this link - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7530678/Biblical-plagues-really-happened-say-scientists.html - explains, modern day scientists have come up with a natural explanation for each of these events.

According to these theories, a major climatic change in a certain city in Egypt caused the Nile to dry up and attract toxic fresh water algae that stained the water red. This indirectly caused an explosion in the population of frogs, gnats and flies with the latter spreading disease leading to death of livestock and boils. Meanwhile, a volcanic eruption in the Mediterranean produced an ash cloud so severe that it caused the plagues of hail, locusts and darkness. The final and crucial plague (in that it provoked Pharaoh to relent at last to Moses’ request) was the death of the firstborn. This can be explained by a fungus poisoning grain supplies, of which the firstborn son would have had first pickings.

The parting of the Red Sea (Ex 14) also has a scientific explanation. Computer simulations suggest that, at a specific site in the Nile Delta, a powerful wind could have literally pushed the waters back and created a land bridge to allow the people to cross (see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8015908/Biblical-parting-of-the-Red-Sea-could-have-happened.html).

And please don’t get me started on the theory that manna from heaven (Ex 16) was in fact magic mushrooms which not only kept the Israelites alive but ensured that large parts of the Bible, Torah and Koran were written under the influence of psychedelically induced visions!

How should we as Christians react to this science? Should we be happy to hear that the events we read about in the Old Testament could actually have happened, or should we be disappointed that these “miracles” may not have been miracles at all? I would argue that, whether or not these phenomena were supernatural, God’s power and intention could still have been behind them, influencing the random element of when and where key changes in the natural world occurred. One could use the same arguments to reconcile the seemingly conflicting theories of creationism and evolution.

Today, the world is continually rocked by natural disasters and unusual phenomena. While scientists often find it difficult to predict when, where and how these events will occur, they can offer a rational explanation ex post of why and how they happened. But while we may not witness the supernatural power of God on such a grand scale, as testified by Biblical writers, we should not rule out the possibility that the finger of God, or other spiritual powers, may be at work.

Science has empowered the human race to have far more control over our environment, for better or worse, but there is a danger that, in seeking to understand and rationalise everything, we lose sight of the greater powers that may be at work in the universe. Acceptance of miracles and unexplained phenomena was not an intellectual struggle for the Egyptians and Israelites but it is for us. Last weekend, I began my involvement in a ministry called Healing on the Streets. During the training session, I was for the first time a witness to a miraculous healing, where a woman’s leg grew so that her legs were the same length. As far as I know, there is no scientific explanation as to how that could have happened in the space of a few minutes. This joins the hundreds of accounts of miraculous healing that I have heard second hand and I am looking forward to building up my own body of primary evidence as I continue in this ministry.