Hi Gordon
Do you have specific information on the computer simulation by the "two Israelis"?
respectfully
Jon
gordon brown wrote:
> Iain,
>
> Exodus 14:21 clearly indicates that the Lord used wind to divide the
> waters of the Red Sea, and so the timing was what I would consider to be
> miraculous. A few years ago two Israelis did a computer simulation to see
> what a sustained very strong wind would do at the presumed site of the
> crossing and concluded that it would do what Exodus said it did. I don't
> believe that God's involvement in an extremely unusual meteorological
> phenomenon has to be any different from his involvement in what we would
> consider to be normal weather.
>
> I once visited the Neusiedlersee (if I correctly remember the name), a
> lake on the border between Austria and Hungary. Although this lake has a
> large area, it is only 1.8 meters (about 6 ft.) deep at its deepest point.
> The residents of that area say that when there is a very strong wind in
> the right direction, all the water is blown to the Hungarian end of the
> lake. There have been occasions when people wandered out onto the dry part
> of the lake bed and were drowned when the water suddenly returned. The
> resemblance of this phenomenon to that of the Red Sea crossing supports
> the idea that it was the timing that should be regarded as the most
> remarkable aspect.
>
> Gordon Brown
> Department of Mathematics
> University of Colorado
> Boulder, CO 80309-0395
>
> On Mon, 12 Feb 2001, Iain Strachan wrote:
>
> > I'm kind of inclined to think that the two are really no different. Take
> > the parting of the Red Sea example. Actually I find it a little bit hard to
> > believe that meteorological conditions could naturally cause the sea to
> > part, but suppose that was possible without "miracles". We still have to
> > understand how God caused the "coincidence" to happen. It is often said of
> > chaos theory (I believe?) that the flapping of a butterfly's wings can cause
> > a tornado the other side of the world three weeks later. So it's possible
> > that the small, subtle change of an event might cause such a thing to
> > happen. And clearly the calculation of the consequences would be easy for
> > an omnipotent creator. But when it comes down to it, there is still a
> > violation of the natural order, where God "intervenes" and causes the
> > butterfly, or whatever, to flap its wings in just the right direction to
> > cause the wind that parted the sea. Thus, information is planted in from
> > outside that makes the course of history change. The information is
> > ultimately the firing of electrical pulses in a set of neurons, and
> > therefore is still "miraculous"; God had to change the electrical signals
> > from what they were going to be; and conceptually I can't really see the
> > difference between that, and a miraculous parting of the sea by unnatural
> > causes (except in scale).
> >
> > Hope that makes some sense!
> > Iain.
> >
> >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 12 2001 - 23:21:40 EST