Dr Gupta weighs in on *Biblical Plagues*?

Question

The gory story is more than 4,000 years old. God, angry at Pharaoh and the Egyptians for keeping the Hebrews as slaves, unleashed 10 plagues: rivers of blood, frogs, lice, flies, murrain or disease affecting only the cattle, boils, hail, locusts, three days of darkness and death of the firstborn
First plague - bloody rivers: possibly caused by red algae sucking out all the oxygen in the water, producing noxious toxins and killing the fish. In addition to the dead fish, the algae itself turns the water color red.

Second plague - frogs: The death of the fish allowed for the unhindered breeding of tadpoles. But once the algae levels rose high enough to affect the amphibians, they were driven out of the water and forced to live on land. They could not survive out of the water for long and died.

Third plague - gnats;

Fourth plague - flies: Without any frogs or toads to eat them, the population of gnats and flies flourished amongst their dead bodies.

Fifth plague - disease;

Answer 1

So you're trying to prove there is no God by giving natural explanations for Biblical events?

Answer 2

No, those aren't the plagues. For a start, it's not bloody rivers it's rivers of blood. Not red water, not red algae, blood.

Just like all the miracles in the bible, the only way the plagues are anything other than nonsense is by assuming that the words the bible uses are wrong. While you can make a miracle less miraculous and, therefore, more believable by changing words, what is the use of that? It's like saying that Jesus walked near the water instead of on the water.

It's better to just admit that these are campfire stories written down after being told for centuries. They are in no way accurate history and were never meant to be.

Answer 3

I have heard several "natural" explaination like that. But none seem to go all the way to end of the list. They have a hard time coming up with a natural way to make three days of darkness in all by one city (Goshen) of the nation or killing only the firstborn sons of each non-Jewish family.

Answer 4

I have a friend who owns 10 plagues finger puppets. He bought then at the dollar store.

I would have loved to be in on the marketing meeting for that one: "Hey! I have an idea. 10 plagues, 10 digit on the hands. Coincidence??"

Answer 5

Yea, we know this part already (we watched the movie).

What is the point? And were is the link to Dr. Gupta?

===edit==

In response to what "LabGrrl" asked, why would an Egyptian King keep track of his humiliating defeats? Isn't that for his enemies to do, not him? History is also propaganda. Winners write the history books, not the losers.

Answer 6

Um. If it was caused by a red tide, it wasn't caused by god.

And why did the Egyptians-fantastic recordkeepers that they were-miss this?

Answer 7

I love a horror story

Answer 8

Who is Dr. Gupta and why do I care about his opinion?

Answer 9

he should know
he was there