[VadeRetro]

The Egyptian desert creates mummies very naturally. Die out there and later somebody finds a very dry, very lightweight mummy. None of the ritual steps the Egyptian immortality-of-the-body cult eventually added are really necessary for good preservation, nor are they even sufficient in themselves without the dry air. Yes, such a mummy gives no evidence at all of water. It gives evidence that when the water is gone, the rest doesn't weigh much. (Did you really not realize this, Fester?)

[Fester Chugabrew]

"It gives evidence that when the water is gone, the rest doesn't weigh much. (Did you really not realize this, Fester?)"

No, I really didn't. I forgot to reason that, in the case of mummies found in the desert, they weigh one third of what the living being did. This would lead the ancients, or anyone for that matter, to at least assume something of substance was taken from the body. Would they assume that substance is water? Probably. Would they, for that reason, conclude than man is made mostly from water? Probably.

Nevertheless, if one looks only on the surface of things it is not readily apparent that the bodies we see walking around and communicating are comprised of a mix that includes 2 parts H₂O and 1 part other stuff.

I offer this only as a way of suggesting that ancient religious writings are not ipso facto false when they make claims to phenomena not readily observed by the human eye.

[atlaw]

Indeed (as I pointed out to Fester in an earlier post, to no avail). What's really fascinating, though, is the very early development of the mummification process in many aboriginal cultures, including the shrinking and tanning of tissues to create effigies of enemies, a process developed in many cases without the benefit of desert dryness as an observational guide. Man demonstrated a remarkable (and somewhat gruesome) inventiveness pretty early on.