A “researcher” at Hebrew University has published a study that claims Moses was high on drugs when he was given the Ten Commandments by God. I am having trouble figuring out why this is news and why Benny Shannon (the researcher) would even waste time “studying” this. If anyone has seen “History of the World Part II” then you know that Moses was in fact sober and was given 15 Commandments but dropped 5 of them. If Benny Shannon had done any research at all, he could have saved us all the trouble of making fun of him.
The real motivation behind this thesis is to make Benny feel better about his own drug use. According to the article:
He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil's Amazon forest in 1991. "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," Shanon said.
So he figures that if he can bring big Moses down a notch or two, then he will be living large. However he is just a hater all around. His conclusion is based on strong evidence like this:
“As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics."
I had always been under the impression that academic papers and “studies” actually had to have documentable evidence not just hearsay and personal experience with drugs. I wonder if the footnotes site the Amazonian (is that a word?) religious experience in reference to Moses’ visions (hopefully in correct MLA format). Good try Benny…I for one am on Team Moses.
