Flying Pharoahs
The Pharaohs Could Fly
Much of what people have regarded as magic and “god” over the centuries have really been things they just didn’t understand so they attributed mystical significance to normal events.
A great example of this is a piece I read by Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions) who wrote that the ancient Egyptians could fly. Obviously, we know that they did not. They left us so many records in the form of artwork and writings that we would know if they had.
But, they had bamboo, papyrus, linen, and the thermals and steady winds of the Nile valley. They could have built gliders capable of sailing hundreds of miles. Unfortunately, they were ignorant of the laws of aerodynamics even though they were as much in effect then as now. But they didn’t know, so they didn’t go.
It’s possible that there are laws of physics that we don’t know about today that, if we did, we would be capable of feats as astounding to us (including flying without planes) as flying would have been to the Pharaohs, who would have assumed that was supernatural, but was only the application of physical laws effective for anyone.
Even today, we see the same thing when people, observing anything they do not understand, assume it has a supernatural source. “God cured me of cancer” “The lord was with us. It’s a miracle only 12 people were killed. It could have been worse.” “I don’t understand how evolution could possibly work, so it must have been god.”
Brazil Brat 2 Blog 
Simple explantion of everyday event is common. I was faciated when early in my college days I selected a project that was to examine how children view televison. Not what they were watching but how the process worked. A marjority of those interviewed, using kindergarten logic, believed that the characters they saw on the TV screen accually lived inside the televison. What the eye sees sometimes it what the mind believes.
You have way too much time on your hands Jiimmy. Put up or shut up. Like you…SIMPLE.
I received this request from a reader in The Netherlands. I agreed to include it for others.
Dear Mr. Smith
To promote skepticism/critical thinking I wrote some questions for the Christian believer. Are you able to put the link to these questions at your blog.
Thank you very much,
Piet – Rotterdam – Netherlands.
The original questions
http://www.freethinker.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=8382
The translation
http://www.freethinker.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=10033
Science not fully understood is always a miracle. Note how many Christians attribute the origin of the world to God, yet none will point to a leaf falling and call it a miracle. Why? Because we already understand gravity without needing God to explain it. Evolution, however, is often misunderstood or maligned, and so God is used as an explanation.
How many mechanics pray for their car to start? How many surgeons put down their tools and simply pray for recovery? None, because faith simply does not work without a degree of ignorance.
As I have often quoted, “Faith is not needed when facts are available.” If any religion had facts to present, they would not need to preach faith and the false promises of heaven nor the empty threats of hell.”
When the “God of the gaps” is used as a premise, that god grows smaller each time another fact is proven.