Creation/evolution3

[watchamadoodle]

Plausible is a real stretch IMO. It would only be plausible if manna and water from rocks was plausible, because there is no other way millions of people and animals could survive in the desert - not when the population of Egypt, the most productive farmland of the world, was only 3 million at that time.

Of course, there may have been some real events that inspired the myth of Exodus.

You missing the bigger point here.
If manna and water from rocks were known/knowable events then why would the jews worship God?

All the stuff that they witnessed in the desert establishes God to the nation of Israel. Before this He only spoke to a few patriarchs.

I'm confused by what you mean by "known/knowable events". I'm guessing you mean "non-miraculous events"?

I agree that according the story, God was trying to create a generation of Israelites who trusted God, so they could be the nation that God promised Abraham, follow God's law, blah blah blah. So making them depend on miraculous food and water was part of God's plan.

If you're willing to believe in manna, then I suppose it's not such a stretch to believe that the Israelites fastidiously recycled all their waste or that people eating manna had no need to defecate, or that there was no trash because nothing wore out, or whatever.

We might also believe that God created the universe 6000 years ago in such a way that it appeared to have been created by a big bang 13 billion years ago.

One problem with miracles is that God supposedly created the laws of nature (gravity, etc.) It seems to me that God would not break those laws willy-nilly to impress a group of people so that they could go and commit genocide in the promised land. Wouldn't it make more sense for God to use his miraculous power to make the indigenous peoples of the promised land welcome the Israelites as God's chosen people?