You are arrogantly placing me in that camp - merely because I favor the more-elegant solution that God simply created the needed water ex nihilo?
What presumption!
I don't intend to argue Geophysics with you (it was never my wish to argue Geophysics, in depth, with anyone here - rather, I am of the position that to venture into that territory at all in attempting to "explain" Biblical stories is unnecessary and fosters a wrong mindset).
The basic "ploy" of the main article (and its ilk) is to suggest to its readership that they are in any way even remotely qualified to absorb this info (about, e.g., ringwoodite) and properly integrate it into their understanding of the Biblical narrative.
It is, after all, quite flattering for some person who flunked 8th-grade "Earth Science" to gloss over this article and then smugly announce, "Hah! I always knew the Bible was right! And this proves it!"
I can just see that person then, in later conversation with skeptics, suddenly pulling out this factoid about ringwoodite as though its mere mention "won the day" for them. Disgusting!
(Please NOTE that I am not claiming that you, personally, were such a person, DiogenesLamp.)
Regards,
What presumption!
I meant it tongue in cheek. It was an effort on my part to be amusing.
And as for your "elegant" solution. I am somewhat acquainted with what I believe is a common Christian philosophy of "free will." It is the belief that God conceals his existence so that people may choose to freely follow him rather than being intimidated into doing it out of fear, which would happen if God made his existence clear to people.
By making his existence appear uncertain, there is no coercion through fear to believe in him and follow the teachings he has laid out. I am told he wants people to follow him because of love, not because of fear. He wants their honest behavior, not one induced by fear of punishment.
With that in mind, the manifestations of God's acts are always explainable by other factors. About the only thing marking them as acts of God are the astonishing coincidences required for things to work out as they did.
The hallmark of God's works appear to be astonishingly unlikely coincidence, but they always must be events which people can perceive as not being the result of divine power.
Hence, your water "ex nihilo" violates what is believed to be God's methodology. It becomes a clear case of "magic" that leaves no doubt as to divine power, and thereby breaks "free will."
I don't intend to argue Geophysics with you (it was never my wish to argue Geophysics, in depth, with anyone here - rather, I am of the position that to venture into that territory at all in attempting to "explain" Biblical stories is unnecessary and fosters a wrong mindset).
That's a shame, because there are a lot of interesting Geophysics at work with the plagues of Egypt, and that was a topic I thought we might both enjoy.
And for what it's worth, Archeological evidence is continuously turning up which supports biblical accounts of events. Discoveries keep occurring that vindicates parts of the bible that speak of things of which we had no knowledge beyond what is written in the bible, and which many people believed were not real events or real peoples.
I used to keep up with such things in the past, but nowadays there are so many things to keep up with that I have lost track of many such articles i've read over the years.
I believe King David is one such example. No historical record of him existed until relatively recently.
In any case, I consider you to be a quite reasonable person.