"300 years before 'the time of Moses'"

[JSteen]

I'm not sure where to put this post, sorry if it's in the wrong place.

Following on from the discussion elsewhere about religion and science: I was reading this article about heart disease in mummies - http://news.aol.com/article/heart-disea ... ies/771746. The article is presumably written by a science writer who part way down places the age of a particular mummy as, "some 300 years before the time of Moses and 200 prior to King Tut."

? Surely we don't know for sure that Moses was a historical figure, let alone know exactly when he lived? Yes, people say it was during the reign of Ramses II but we don't actually know that do we? Speaking of biblical figures as though they were historical figures when we don't know that they actually were ... annoying! What we have here is an article about science, placed in history, with mythology mixed in as a reference point. Argh.

Thank you for listening. : )

[Minimalist]

Yeah, that sort of stuff is annoying. There are lots of examples of mythology sneaking in unwanted.

[Digit]

Mythology Min? Take a look at some popular articles, films etc about prehistoric animals. Ten per cent fact, ninety per cent guess work present as fact!

Roy.

[Minimalist]

Noted biblical scholar, Jonathan Reed, coined the term "archaeoporn" in relation to this phenomenon. Of course, he was talking about Jacobovici's "Jesus Tomb" at the time. Reed has a few problems of his own on that score.