[meteorite-list] Seven Plagues and Killer Meteorites

From: Michael L Blood <mlblood_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 11:21:47 -0700
Message-ID: <C29AC9CB.36B07%mlblood_at_cox.net>

Dear Darren,
        While I am no authority on biblical history, I do know
something about language, being a college instructor in
Anthropology, with Linguistics being a major factor in Cultural
Anthropology. There is an aspect to historical linguistics
called Glottochronology which focuses on the specifics of language
change. Prior to radio, television and now, email and the internet,
language change could very reliably be measured at a change
rate of 7% of the "core vocabulary" (words that refer to universal
constants, such as tree, rock, moon, sun, nose, eye, arm leg,
finger, rain, milk, etc). This rate of change is how related languages
are determined, language families are traced, etc.
        Your comments that there is likely not one word among Native
American speakers that is unchanged since migration is profoundly
off base. While there are indications cited of small migrations going
back as far as nearly 50,000 years, the vast majority of migration
occurred between 12,000 and 15,000 years ago. Do the math.
        As for Exodus likely being a myth with no basis, that, again
would appear to be a knee jerk comment. While I am with you on
the cartoon "god" referenced in the Old Testament, much of that
had to do with a profound number of religious zealots tending to
be least mentally unbalanced or even psychotic, just as so many
are today (the numerous TV evangelists that "fall from grace,"
the Jim Jones suicide cult, the tail of the self castrating comet tail
suicide cult, etc). Even then, that does not mean the loonies didn't
historically exist. Nor does it mean everyone of note in the Old
Testament was a loony.
        Your comments about linguistic instability are just plain
wrong and your comments about the lack of any historic validity
to the Old Testament are what those who review papers call
"sweeping statements" - declarations lacking substantiation.
        Naughty, naughty.
        Best wishes, Michael
        

on 6/17/07 10:45 AM, Darren Garrison at cynapse at charter.net wrote:

> On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 10:13:22 -0700 (PDT), you wrote:
>
>>
>> The seven plagues were likely caused by a release of
>> caustic water from a source lake for the Nile River.
>
> Oh, and this. The sevep plagues are likely a fairy tale made up to make a
> good
> story to tell of the escape from Egypt (which itself may or may not be a
> myth).
> Just like all the other old fairy tales that you believe are oral accounts of
> things that happened tens of thousands of years ago, even though languages
> themselves-- even written languages-- aren't stable over even a few hundred
> years. There probably isn't one single word in any Native American language
> that is unchanged from the first migrations into the US-- and you REALLY
> believe
> that oral history will survive thousands of years? Seriously? Not a joke?
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Received on Sun 17 Jun 2007 02:21:47 PM PDT