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Review of The Universe: Ancient Mysteries Solved E03 "Heavenly Destruction"

3/16/2014

38 Comments

 
Sodom and Gomorrah have been much abused in fringe history, going back to the early suggestion dating back to the Soviet sources cited by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier that the biblical cities of sin were destroyed by a nuclear bomb, speculation repeated in Erich von Däniken and his successors, sometimes substituting an alien death ray for a nuclear bomb. The tale of cities felled from the sky is not just an ancient one, but one far more widespread than the Bible. The Arabs had a parallel myth of the destruction of Iram of the Pillars in a great explosion of sound from the sky (Qur’an 89:6-14 with Arabian Nights 276-279), and Vedic literature tells of the destruction of the triple city of Dwarka in a tremendous burst of energy from the sky (Mahabharata, Karna Parva 34).
The Universe: Ancient Mysteries Solved E03 “Heavenly Destruction” intends to explore whether a comet or asteroid hit Sodom and Gomorrah, a theory that has been banging around the scientific community for a several decades now, and which bears more than a passing resemblance to Immanuel Velikovsky’s ridiculous idea that the planet Jupiter was once close enough to the earth that its periodic discharges of electricity knocked out the two cities, while Mercury toppled the Tower of Babel the same way, or the still earlier claim of Edmond Halley that a comet strike caused the Flood of Noah. That idea actually spawned a whole sub-genre of comet-strike theories about biblical events in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In volume 13 of the Gentleman’s Magazine (1743), for example, an anonymous writer wrote of comets: “Perhaps he [God] made use of one to destroy Sodom, Gomorrah, and the Cities of the Plain.”

The show gives a background lecture on asteroids and suggests that ancient peoples knew of falling rocks and thought of them as rocks from the sky. This isn’t entirely certain. The scholia to Pindar state that the poet saw a rock fall from the sky, but when he found the meteor, he believed it to be a statue of the Great Mother sent from the goddess in the sky. The Greeks considered meteors to be divine gifts, but down to the eighteenth century many denied that it was possible for rocks to fall from the sky since beyond earth there was, by definition, nothing but ether.

After a demonstration using bird shot to represent the destructive power of meteors, the show tries to establish that Sodom and Gomorrah actually existed, which is not at all certain. The Genesis account from chapter 13 is discussed, along with the destruction narrative in 19. The show discusses how the sin of Sodom is never specified in Genesis. (In fact, it’s the Qur’an that actually preserves the story that developed later among Jews and Christians that it was gay sex that burned the cities--26:160-175).

The show recommends Tall el-Hamman, a ruined city in the plain of Jordan, as their candidate for Sodom. It was the largest Iron Age city in the region, and excavations carried out in 2006 suggested that a layer of ash represented a cataclysmic destruction of the city around 1600 BCE. (The show gives this as 1750-1650 BCE.) However, Biblical scholars balked when Stephen Collins, who is also an evangelical Christian, put forward the identification in 2006 and said such discoveries support the historicity of the Bible. He later wrote a book asserting that the site was Sodom, and a co-excavator, Joseph Holden, included the assertion in the Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible. By contrast, those not involved in the excavation have expressed doubt and note that the site is traditionally identified with the biblical site of Shittim. Some critics believed that the site failed to match the geography of Sodom, others that it failed to align with a chronology that places Abraham and Lot before 1700 BCE. This is all rather circular: taking the Bible literally and as inerrant produces much convoluted logic.

Lot’s wife is explained (for now) as a rationalization of salt pillars extant near the Dead Sea. But after suggesting that Lot’s wife might not have literally turned into a pillar of salt (which we will explore more later in the hour), the show seems unable to see that logically that would suggest that this frees us from the need to take any other verses as literally true either.

The show suggests that a greenish glaze found on the ruined city’s pottery was due to extreme temperatures caused by a cosmic airburst over the city, that is, an exploding asteroid. It’s an interesting question. The show talks about the Tunguska Event and the 2013 Russian asteroid explosion as modern parallels.

The trouble is that the biblical account doesn’t really match an asteroid strike as described by The Universe, or at least nothing in the account demands this explanation. The only verses that document the destruction say the following:
24 Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;
25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord:
28 And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

(Genesis 19:24-28, KJV)
To explain this, the show tells us that brimstone (burning sulfur) was actually meant to represent “yellow light” and thus an asteroid explosion, and the talking heads euhemerize the story by taking the rain to mean the precipitating particles falling from the mid-air explosion as they cooled and gave off smoke. (Sulfur burns with a blue flame.) The show asks us to believe that the smoke rising from the ruins was a mushroom cloud, given off by an asteroid collision. I’m not sure there’s enough in the text to distinguish between a mushroom cloud and any other type of large fire. Frankly, they’re reading far too much in to the brief wording, and no one stops to consider the rather formulaic use of fire and brimstone and other forms of fiery destruction elsewhere in the Bible.

One unanswered question is whether other cities in the area also show evidence of the same cosmic collision. The Bible, after all, tells us of two: Sodom and Gomorrah. (Why doesn’t anyone look for Gomorrah, after all?)

We next look at a Byzantine-era map of the Holy Land that shows Zoar thirty miles away from Tall el-Hamman. Obviously, if one takes the Biblical narrative literally, Tall el-Hamman cannot be Sodom if the southern site is the ancient Zoar since Lot supposedly reached Zoar in one night’s travel. Thus, we are told that the Bronze Age site of Bab edh-Dhra, near Zoar, is a candidate for being the real Sodom and Numeira for Gomorrah. They have been one since 1973, when Walter E. Rast and R. Thomas Schaub proposed the identification. In turn, many of the sites south of the Dead Sea have evidence of sulfur and of fiery destruction. But Bab edh-Dhra and its sister city Numeira were destroyed centuries apart.

This leads us down another rabbit hole of biblical literalism with complaints that no site matches all of the material from Genesis, and that the Byzantine mapmakers may have been wrong in identifying Zoar, simply guessing at a location.

Not once does anyone consider that the Biblical narrative might be incorrect, or that it conflates events or exaggerates events, or localizes an older myth, or any other possibility. Instead, we keep looking for a perfect match in time and space because “it had to be an important event,” as one talking head puts it.

The show ends with fancy graphics depicting an air burst and its impact. The problematic aspects of the narrative are ignored: How did Lot and his family know the air burst was coming? Worse, like an ancient astronaut theorist, we hear one pundit tell us that Lot’s wife was turned not to salt but to ash from the flames. But how is it that she was close enough to ignite while her family—standing right beside her—was not? Oh, we hear, she wasn’t in the cave while everyone else was. No, wrong again. Genesis 19:23 specifically says that all the family waited out the destruction before the city of Zoar. Lot only went to the caves in the mountains after his wife’s transformation, as per Genesis 19:30. Live by literalism, die by literalism.

Biblical archaeologist Robert Mullins tells us that for many seekers after Sodom the most important reason to try to find the historical Sodom is so we can feel secure that “the rest of the Bible is valid.” If Sodom did not burn, then Judeo-Christian-Islamic faith is in vain. Or, as 1 Corinthians 15:14 more poetically puts it in regard to another miracle of faith: “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” I’m not really sure that an asteroid does much for theology, at least no more than the comet suggested as an agent of divine vengeance in the 1700s, but I guess this falls into the category of rationalizing the miracles of faith. Better an asteroid than atheism, I guess.

38 Comments
KIF
3/16/2014 09:52:30 am

But surely the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah cannot be divorced from the reason - sex with ETs ?

Reply
Titus pullo
3/16/2014 10:08:45 am

Ok wrong topic but I caught the last oak islan episode and guess what? They found an old spainish coin which couldn't be dated but was supposedly from 1600 century. Now I can think of about 10 scenarios how the coin was supposedly found in a tidal swamp before I can buy the treasure story but there you go another season will now be filmed

Reply
KIF
3/16/2014 10:09:52 am

The coin was planted there by Blankenship

Reply
Matt Mc
3/16/2014 10:22:30 am

Well that would be this first real find in the 100+ years of searching at Oak Island. Of course it is not proof that a treasure is there but at least they found something.

Reply
KIF
3/16/2014 12:10:00 pm

Some folks accept any old rubbish far too easily - easy money for shameless opportunists

Victor Goldwag
3/16/2014 12:12:21 pm

I found the Ark of the Covenant in the Oak Island Pit - it contained a scroll bearing the signature of Jacques de Molay, authorising it to be transported there from Rochelle. I am keeping this information a secret.

Hugh De Bris
3/16/2014 12:15:31 pm

Actually, the Ark of the Covenant was given to one of the aliens at Roswell some years ago

abductedbyaliens
3/16/2014 10:36:13 am

@Jason - a couple of corrections:

Second paragraph, third line from the bottom, you have two 'for example.'

Sixth paragraph, second line from the bottom, you state 'this fees us' which I believe should be 'this frees us.'

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/16/2014 01:54:29 pm

Fixed. Thanks.

Reply
MRK
3/16/2014 01:23:29 pm

A show produced a few years ago (I don't know when, I saw it more recently on the Military Channel, of all places) claimed that the destruction of Sodom was the result of an asteroid strike that actually hit somewhere in the Alps. The fiery rain and other carnage was caused by the cubic miles of ash from the mountain that exploded when the asteroid hit. This ash, they claimed, fell back from the impact point and down over the Dead Sea region. I don't recall all the details now, but this version of events struck me as more plausible than the direct impact this show appears to have proposed. And none of it was, unless I'm forgetting something, reliant on nailing down the exact location of a city that may or may not have existed.

Reply
Varika
3/16/2014 02:00:44 pm

See, I've never had a hard time believing that Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira are Sodom and Gomorrah--but then, my belief has been that the destruction came first and the stories much, much later. It too closely resembles tales about dancing stones, trolls turning to stone in sunlight, and fanciful tales of the destruction of old cities from around the world. Walking/dancing-stone and troll-stone tales are a product of the human brain's need to recognize faces, as far as I can tell; I've seen photographs and even been personally face to, well, "face" with some rock formations that have an uncanny resemblance to human or human-like features. The salt formations in that area, from some of the photographs I've seen, are quite capable of weathering in a way that begs the human brain to see faces in them.

I know it seems like I'm making a lot out of a single comment, but most dancing/walking stone stories--and even troll stories--involve a larger morality tale or fairytale. It just makes sense to me that the story is a morality tale that explains both why there are ruins of towns over there, ones that look burnt, possibly, and why this pillar of salt looks uncannily like a screaming woman. It's not as if people in the early Biblical era had the kinds of tools we have to narrow down that these towns were destroyed a century apart, after all, unless they were actually THERE for the latter of the two events.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/16/2014 02:15:52 pm

I agree that the most logical explanation is that the stories are post hoc attempts to explain the ruins, not unlike the Greeks explaining the Mycenaean ruins as the work of the Cyclopes. But that reading doesn't allow for biblical inerrancy, so as far as pop culture TV is concerned, it is verboten.

Reply
Varika
3/17/2014 10:09:59 am

I'm so glad I'm not required to believe in biblical inerrancy. I don't think I'd be able to even if I were Christian and of a literalist sect. I think too much. And I know too much about psychology and storytelling.

KIF
3/17/2014 01:29:06 am

Is there an archaeological report on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah showing that it actually happened? Where can I find this report?

Reply
Varika
3/17/2014 10:08:50 am

Considering there is no solid proof of the existence of Sodom and Gomorrah, no, there isn't. But there are several archeological sites in the Dead Sea area that show clear signs of destruction, and you can google them. Bab edh-Drah and Numeira are among them.

RLewis
3/17/2014 02:58:50 am

Doesn't it sound more like a destruction from a volcano? I assume there are probably no volcano candidates in the area - but, you know: aliens.

Reply
KIF
3/17/2014 04:59:36 am

The destruction was punishment for the attempted homosexual rape of 2 angels. The words sodomy and sodomite for male anal intercourse derive from the name of Sodom, in Genesis chapter 19.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/17/2014 05:11:26 am

That's an interpretation, albeit the one followed in later tradition and in the Qur'an. But in Gen. 19 the angels told Lot they were sent to destroy the city because there was a widespread outcry against it that reached heaven, meaning that the decision had been made before the attempted rape.

Varika
3/17/2014 10:17:00 am

There's also the fact that it's not conclusive that they intended homosexual rape. The same word--the Hebrew word translated as "know"--has also been used in a non-sexual sense within the Bible. It's equally possible that the confrontation intended the torture of the angels, or the public humiliation of the angels, both of which would have been really, terribly, HORRIBLE violations of hospitality taboos. You're correct about the derivation of the words sodomy and sodomite, but the derivation didn't take place until sometime around 1300 CE and proves nothing about the original story, only about what people 3,000+ years after the fact thought the story meant.

Also, RLewis, seen that show, too. The volcano hypothesis one, I mean.

carrie
5/31/2016 09:34:24 pm

there are no volcanoes or volcano deposits in that area

Reply
Erik G
3/17/2014 05:24:50 am

Jason -- Regarding your statement: "... Immanuel Velikovsky’s ridiculous idea that the planet Jupiter bumped into the earth and knocked out the two cities, while Mercury toppled the Tower of Babel..."

I do not recall Velikovsky saying this in any of his published works.

References please? (Just the book or article title will do.)

Thanks.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/17/2014 06:01:40 am

My memory is at fault. I was thinking instead of his claim that Jupiter was once so close to earth that its period electrical outbursts incinerated Sodom and Gomorrah, as described in "The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah," KRONOS (1981). I'm not sure that's much better a theory, but I've corrected the text above.

Reply
Gunn link
3/17/2014 02:59:55 pm

Juicy tidbits about "theology" from Jason, who may be overstepping his History and Alien/UFO boundaries when "reviewing" the Christian faith, on occasion:

"Not once does anyone consider that the Biblical narrative might be incorrect."

"...taking the Bible literally and as inerrant produces much convoluted logic."

"How did Lot and his family know the air burst was coming?"

"...the show tries to establish that Sodom and Gomorrah actually existed, which is not at all certain."

“And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” - Paul

Jason, just because literal meanings and symbolic meanings can be confused by the average human, is that any reason to call God a liar? Things are purposely concealed, for a time. God is good at doing this.

God can also warn people away from danger, as with Lot, and God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God answers to no one about His methodology. My guess it that it is too confusing and detailed to understand...for now. Later we shall know, as we're known. Knowing God is a faith proposition that works, from my own perspective and experience.

As for the cosmic air-burst event, something from the sky rained down upon these wretched souls, in very real cities, not lied-about cities.

A solid object would make a mushroom cloud, but an asteroid or comet fragmenting into billions of pieces would be a different story. A cosmic air-burst such as that in Russia last year would do the trick, magnified enough to create actual massive damage from HOT asteroid fragments striking everything within range. Of course, from my point of view, the method isn't as important as the message:

Don't mess with God's messengers (angels), especially when they are on a mission to prevent someone's doom. Slow down and see why they have come...perhaps with the right attitude, you, too, will be saved.

Odd, that verse about young men seeing visions and old men dreaming dreams. I mentioned before here that I woke up startled back in about 1978-79 upon seeing something like a comet come whooshing in and exploding everything into silent whiteness. I no longer live in the state I lived in at the time! I was dreaming, and in the dream (or possibly a short vision of sorts), it was obvious that massive destruction was coming.

In the dream, which to this day I take as a warning, I was sitting on some typical high school bleachers on the side of a football field, facing north. It was summertime, and the sky was clear blue. The comet came swooping in high up from the northeast, coming towards Michigan, waiting like a huge, stupid catcher's mitt. Everything there ended, oddly silent and white.

And that's all I'll say about that....

Remember about the text message on our money, Jason. In Whom do we as a Nation STILL trust? Why are the words STILL there on our money? Because many, many Americans believe in God...and surprise, surprise, surprise, some of these are scientists, archaeologists and other learned folks who can manage to reconcile in their minds and hearts the "inconsistencies" and "oddities" in the Bible.

Excuse me, but we are NOT ALL people here who would throw Baby Jesus out with the bathwater.

Reply
Snarkington
3/17/2014 04:35:34 pm

As usual unloaded-Gunn is going off half cocked again!

"Juicy tidbits about "theology" from Jason, who may be overstepping his History and Alien/UFO boundaries when "reviewing" the Christian faith, on occasion:"

It is purely fantasy to say that Jason is giving pronouncements on theology or reviewing the Christian faith.

As has been said many times, if you don't like what Jason says, don't read it. Your complaints are very tiresome!

Reply
Gunn
3/19/2014 03:27:24 am

Snarky Snarko Snarkingson, you are the spirit being in danger, not me. How tiresome is that?

Jason Colavito link
3/17/2014 11:34:04 pm

Gunn, as has been said many times, your version of theology is not the only one. If you want to play the (Christian) biblical gotcha game, I can do that, too:

Jesus spoke in parables, which all admit are not literally true but were designed to provide moral instruction.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit are of the same substance, according to the Nicene Creed.

Most mainstream churches hold that the Bible was written by men inspired by the Holy Spirit, who guided their pens.

If Jesus and the Holy Spirit are of the same substance, you cannot deny that if Jesus could speak in parables so too could the Holy Spirit, unless you wish to take issue with the Nicene Creed.

Therefore, unless you deny the words of Christ and the Nicene Creed, there is no way to deny that the Holy Spirit could have used parables and symbolism in guiding the creation of the Hebrew Bible.

The point is: Your view of religion isn't the only one, no matter how much you think it is.

Reply
Gunn
3/19/2014 04:05:51 am

Jason, something got crossed in yer brain. Where did I say anything about the Holy Spirit speaking in parables? Unless you mean, because Jesus spoke in parables, that means the Holy Spirit spoke in parables.

Where did I deny that the Holy Spirit could have used parables and symbolism in guiding the creation of the Bible? I sincerely don't know where you're coming from on this one.

All I'm saying is that in my opinion, the Bible is true. I already said I have no problem mixing literalism with things symbolic or figurative. Are you attempting to separate the powers of God somehow, or break up the Trinity? I don't understand what your point is.

My intention wasn't for you to take offense; my intention was to provide an alternative view here...to counter your purposeful, atheistic rhetoric here, which is only fair, right? Everyone already knows you're an atheist, so you have no position to take offense from. You presented a biased viewpoint, and I presented a biased viewpoint.

As a reviewer, I don't see how your personal lack of theology or faith has anything to do the subject you're reviewing. Again, you're supposed to keep those deep-seated animosities to yourself in order to strive for a professional reputation...unless you don't care.

You make the occasional jabs at God and those who believe in God, and I make the occasional opposing viewpoint, my viewpoint which is not as uncommon as you might expect...or like to portray. As Rev. Phil might say, "You need to lighten up," in this case on God, and on Christians--who do visit here on occasion. We are not the FOOLS; by Biblical definition, unbelievers are.

Jason, you don't want to be perceived as just another crass Bill Maher, do you? My advice: clean it up, Dude. In my opinion, you are in the danger zone, in the same way that El Snarko de Rotteno is.

If you want to perceive this as a possible threat from an imaginary god, you may do so. No one else is a threat to you here, except for your usual foe, the Fallen One, who would delight in taking you with him down that searing pathway....

In your favor, I am concerned with your soul's condition, and I will attempt to make intercession on yer behalf. Try to be in a state of expectation...and remember that PARABLE from the HOLY SPIRIT and from JESUS, and from God the Father about the mustard seed.

So, to sum-up, please try to be more clear about your theological imaginings, and thanks for the "mission field" opportunity here. It's a tough crowd, Mr. Piper.

Discovery of America
3/18/2014 11:54:17 pm

The belief in God is just as much a human failure as is the belief in the Rosslyn myths and legends, that are a mere 30 years old, and have been discredited by Mark Oxbrow and R. L. D. Cooper

Reply
Gunn
3/19/2014 04:16:52 am

What a freakish viewpoint. I'm glad you didn't really discover America...what a shameful beginning platform that would have been!

Dean blundell
3/17/2014 03:31:52 pm

Do you actually believe in god and religion Jason? Wow I thought you'd be smarter then that. So your basically a sheep idiot then?

Reply
Snarky Snodgrass
3/17/2014 04:24:35 pm

Dean Dumbell said...

"Wow I thought you'd be smarter then that. So your basically a sheep idiot then?"

Sounds like you need to take a remedial English class dude!

Wow I thought you'd be smarter ***THAN*** that.

So ***YOU'RE*** basically a sheep idiot then?

I guess you are the sheep idiot here!

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/17/2014 11:37:14 pm

What would give you the impression that I believe in the literal truth of the Bible? I was just accused above of anti-Christian atheism. Apparently I can't win!

Reply
J.A.D
3/18/2014 06:53:41 am

Charles Darwin was not a total rock ribbed atheist, not in the way
Clarence Darrow was! Bill Nye & Ken Ham's debate in KY as in
recently has FOX TV shocking some of its viewers. COSMOS in
episode two had less intense images than its season roll out, but
it stirred a reaction, it went into Charles Darwin in loving detail!!!!!

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/03/science-deniers-cosmos-neil-tyson

This also is a slightly tangential but newsworthy topic! We have
an eco-sphere and/or ecosystem crisis looming in A.D 2036!!!
Admittedly the ancients often worshiped large meteors, they
can land from time to time, so it may have looked like fate or
God's hand, but we can change our destiny by being proactive!

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-global-warming-will-cross-a-dangerous-threshold-in-2036/

Reply
J.A.D
3/18/2014 07:06:23 am

the credits on COSMOS include BRANDON BRAGA and
SETH MACFARLANE, it looks like FOX TV just sided with
Bill Nye, because COSMOS is not holding back on things.
Brandon Braga is very familiar to Star Trek fans, he is SciFi.
"Family Guy" springs to mind when you namedrop S. MacF!
Libertarians may underfund gov't but they often don't herringgut
textbooks. The lines are drawn on the radical right of the GOP!
If a small meteor struct the ground near two ancient "sin" cities,
i can live with that. if a foreign army destroyed them, and then
a tale was invented to describe the ruins, i can live with that too!
The myth/legend of the two "sin" cities assumes a dire fate can
be avoided but the decisions weren't made in time to spare them.
I thought the global warming story places the "science denier"
Mother~Jones missive inside a broader context. FOX TV had at
one point actually backed Herman Cain over Gov. Mitt Romney!

Reply
J.A.D
3/18/2014 07:13:05 am

If I am reading COSMOS correctly, is FOX pulling away from
being a bandwagon boombox for Rick Santorum & sweater vests
as 2016 looms? are they going to try to act more responsibly?

Harry
3/19/2014 01:11:41 am

Jason, I don't think that this program (which I will call by its acronym, TUAMS) necessarily is trying to "live by literalism" and must therefore "die by literalism." It hypothesizes that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah might be a real event caused by a meteor strike (since The Universe is, first and foremost, a show about astronomy) and then examines the Biblical account and archaeological evidence to determine whether that hypothesis holds any water. In doing so, it does try to make the best fit for the Biblical text, but the text is the only account we have and, therefore, is the best place to start if one wants to speculate about the possibility that the story is true.

There is nothing inherently wrong about speculating about history, if there is a reasonable basis for the speculation. Where speculative history goes wrong is when it (1) relies on wild speculation (2) converts speculation into certainty or (3) ignores or does not fairly address disconfirming or seriously problematic evidence. TUAMS states that Tall el-Hamman provides some evidence of a firestorm in the region that could be due to a meteor strike. If anyone on TUAMS slid from saying that a meteor strike might have happened to saying that it did happen, I am not aware of it. I do not know if it addressed all disconfirming evidence, but it does acknowledge that the position of Zoar on the Byzantine map is inconsistent with the story as recorded in Genesis if Tall el-Hamman is Sodom.

In the case of Lot’s wife, there is only so far that one may responsibly go in accepting the Biblical account. There is no plausible mechanism for reducing a woman to a pillar of salt, but, the episode posits, she could be reduced to ash. In my opinion, it is much more plausible that the tale arose to explain a pillar of salt that looks like a woman than that Lot’s wife turned to ash, but I think that TUAMS tacitly acknowledged that by suggesting the former first and throwing the latter out to the audience at the end.

I want to make my own position clear, here. I am a practicing Jew, but I am no Biblical literalist and I am willing to subject Old Testament stories to critical analysis. I also understand that, if there were Hebrews around who witnessed the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, they were centuries away from recording that experience in the Torah, and we must take that into account in assessing how accurate the story might be. Nevertheless, if TUAMS is correct, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in a manner consistent with the Biblical account is neither so far-fetched nor disconfirmed by evidence to reject definitively and that, on the contrary, there is at least some evidence of a cataclysmic event in the area consistent with the hypothesis. And that is all I think the episode was meant to convey.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/19/2014 03:22:54 am

Thank you for your thoughts, Harry. When I said live and die by literalism, I was referring to the specific pundit's claim that Lot et al. could have survived by hiding in caves. The guy claimed that this explanation was consistent with a literal reading of Genesis, but it isn't, which was my point. The episode as a whole did not endorse a literal reading of the Bible.

Reply
Gunn
3/19/2014 04:22:39 am

As the episode pointed out, Lot's wife may have been standing outside the protective cave, looking back and longing for the old life, homosexual friends left behind, etc. (Or at least friends of a BAD CHARACTER in some way.) Good point.


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          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
          • Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
          • Fossil Mammoths and Giants
          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
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        • Ararat and the Ark
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        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
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      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Scrapbook
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
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