Here we go again.

Well, I found it interesting that the assessment came from within the Hebrew community. It fits the model like how comedians can make jokes about their own.

But it does raise an interesting question - how often could that have happened? It's not inconceivable that our ancestors were frequent users of narcotics and hallucinogens. How miserable would the experience have been of roaming around in the desert - people often turn to such remedies to make it all go away. And for it's time, that wasn't a "bad" thing, it was normal. However, it very well could have had significant impacts on real vs. imagined.

I too chuckled at the author's reference to having partaken in the brew - very often.

Why is this an "attack on Judeo-Christian belief?"

He stated a plausible explanation for observable data. We have this old book that claims to be non-fiction, yet is full of out-of-the-ordinary events. Why is it an "attack" to say, "you know, they could have been hallucinations"? Especially when he can identify a specific compound, known to produce similar responses, known to be available in the region in question, and known to have been perceived as having medicinal properties.

You might consider the fact that not even every Christian insists on the literal truth of scriptures - possibly even most do not. The fact that not everyone conforms to narrow-minded, conservative Christian delusion isn't an attack, any more than western society "attacks" Islam when we don't conform to the Qur'an.

i am a former christian, i spent 18 years of my life "high" on jesus, and high on a pedestal similar to yours. jesus didnt drink wine right? it was grape juice? forget that, lets talk about drugs. keep in mind, the bible has been translated from the "originals" thousands of times. and, of course, no one has even seen the originals, or even copies of the originals. our earliest texts are still copies of copies of copies, etc. im sure any mention of a drug has been kindly removed or "mistranslated."

if "bob" made the news tomorrow because he went to the top of his local mountain and received a "message" from god. you, me, pretty much everyone would agree he was on something right? or crazy? but not moses, he was perfectly sane and sober? sure.... because surely god, who "knows all, is all, was all," can be a bit more creative than a flaming bush? i would hope so.

wake up! just wake up! i woke up. i am awake now, free from this nonsense. youre conditioned. youre numb to the absolute ignorance and atrocities the bible possesses. you know what i did? i applied logic to the bible, and to god, and guess what? it crumbles when you do that. go look up dionysus and see the similarities between he and jesus, except his "miracles" were 800 years before jesus. look up the epic of gilgamesh. note the undeniable similarities between he and noah, and the two floods. i can set a bush on fire. that is lame. religion is the worse drug out there. it makes one ten times more delusional because the affects never wear off. just look at the suicide bombers. 42 virgins sounds like an acid trip to me...so does a flaming-gay bush.