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A skeptic, I am a bit too well aware that faith can twist facts to its convenience. Satellite pictures of coral reef formations can become "incontrovertible proof" for the existence of an artificial bridge built an incredible 17 million years ago by the legendary Hindu king Rama. Otherwise sane people can argue that the abbreviation of World Wide Web, www, is actually 666 -- the number of the beast -- fulfilling a Biblical revelation. Fortunately, in the mainstream Hindu culture in which I am nurtured, myths are internalized rather than taken literally. That is a civilizational blessing. If you disagree, just look at the way creationists pester science educators in a developed country like the United States.
Our host stopped before a panel depicting a mummy, and explained that it was not a mummy but a miraculously preserved body of the pharaoh drowned in the Red Sea during the legendary episode of Exodus. In the last moment this pharaoh declared his belief in the God of Musa (i.e. Moses). As a reward God preserved his body as a sign for the people to believe the revealed truth, our guide said. However, the panel depicted a rather well-known mummy -- a Google search later revealed it was that of Ramses-II.
To cut a long story short, after five hours I emerged from the exhibition more a skeptic than a believer. And I decided to check certain claims.
I wrote to Prof. William Hay, professor emeritus of geological sciences and associate curator of the Colorado University Museum, on the knowledge of internal waves that the Koran supposedly revealed before their discovery. Hay was kind enough to give a detailed reply. He explained that the search for such modern scientific knowledge in a supposedly revealed ancient text was "an exercise in futility." He explained that Mohammed could have obtained his knowledge of internal waves through natural agencies rather than revelations. He said "Since then a much simpler explanation of the 'internal waves' occurred to me. When you look down in clear, shallow water on a sunny day, you see the effect of diffraction of light passing through the water on the bottom as narrow bright bands separated by broad dark bands. These often seem to have little if anything to do with the surface waves that actually produce them. Those might be the 'internal waves.'" He also revealed that the search for modern scientific knowledge in the Koran is a huge operation funded by Saudis.
What about the miracle of the preserved body of Pharaoh? Two years after visiting the exhibition, I heard the same story repeated by my Islamic friends in the Tamil blog world. I also read it in an Islamic Web site.
Exodus itself is more mythological than historical. Interestingly, Jews have made theological adjustments to the archeological reality. Dr. David Aaron, a reputed Jewish theologian, thinks of Exodus as more a spiritual parable than a literal historical event. Rabbi David Wolpe, of the California Sinai Temple, agrees. A healthy trend if emulated by other Abrahamic religions, this would make many parts of the planet free of religious strife.
But in the propaganda what we see is a reversal of this thought process. I decided to check the "proof" about the mummy, and wrote to Prof. Adam Bülow-Jacobsen, a classicist with background knowledge of Egypt. I also wrote to Dylan Bickerstaffe, the author of "Refugees of Eternity," a book on the royal mummies of Thebes. He is program secretary for the Society for the Study of Ancient Egypt and a lecturer on ancient Egypt, and has been giving guided tours to the pyramids.
Jacobsen forwarded my email to his colleague, Prof. Françoise Dunand. Dunand, who has spent a lifetime in archeological research of ancient Egypt, wrote back: "I agree with your doubts about the pharaonic mummy. First of all, there is no doubt that all pharaohs were mummified since the New Kingdom. So I'm very surprised if a royal mummy naturally preserved could be exhibited ... Secondly, as you are well aware, the story about Moses crossing the Red Sea is probably mythical. There is not any historical argument about a pharaoh pursuing Hebrews through the sea."
Dylan Bickerstaffe too was kind enough to reply. He wrote: "The mummy usually identified with the pharaoh who supposedly perished chasing the Israelites in the book of Exodus is that of Merneptah, son of Ramses II. This mummy has, however, not left the Cairo museum to my knowledge. Many regard the Exodus story itself as pure folk tale, but even those who believe it contains some truth doubt that the pharaoh of the oppression was Merneptah and the story does not, in fact, state that the pharaoh himself was drowned in the sea -- just his army. The mummy of Merneptah has white patches left by post-mortem cosmetic treatments, but these were once said to have been deposits of salt from being drowned in the sea. Most mummies have some salt on them from the natron used as a drying agent and preservative, and Merneptah is no different."
What about the "preserved body" of the pharaoh featured in propaganda sites and exhibitions? He wrote: "The mummy illustrated there is Ramses II and the photograph was probably taken in the Cairo Museum. Ramses II was certainly mummified in the usual manner and is one of the best preserved of the royal mummies, chiefly because he was not so badly damaged by tomb robbers."
Where does all that leave us? It hurts indeed when faith crumbles before empirical evidence. "Three years ago on Passover, I explained to my congregation that according to archeologists, there was no reliable evidence that the Exodus took place -- and that it almost certainly did not take place the way the Bible recounts it. Finally, I emphasized, it didn't matter. The Torah is not a book we turn to for historical accuracy, but rather for truth. The story of the Exodus lives in us..."
That is Rabbi David Wolpe explaining the spiritual significance of a myth -- ignoring the superficial debate over whether it happened or not in history. We all have a lesson to learn from him.
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(S. Aravindan Neelakandan is a social scientist working with an ecological NGO called Vivekananda Kendra -- Natural Resources Development Project in Nagercoil, India. He is also a freelance writer and author of the Tamil-language "God and 40 Hz.")
