Hasn't that story always struck you as monstrously implausible? I mean, the Jews get to see the plague of blood, the plague of frogs, the plague of lice, the plague of flies, the plague of livestock, the plague of boils, the plague of hail, the plague of locusts, the plague of darkness, the death of the firstborn, the parting of the Red Sea, the rain of manna, the miracle of Horeb, the pillar of smoke by day and fire by night ... and they remain profoundly unimpressed. Yahweh, they think, is not so much, and they needn't worry about pissing him off by making their own god and worshiping that.
Meanwhile, today, when God never shows up (and
you get all offended if someone suggests he might think to put in an appearance once in a while) this same god has 2.2 billion worshipers based just on something they read in a book. Which is rather less impressive.
And you suggest that the Jews "
forgot all the things God did for them"? Two million of them? Damn, if only they'd had diaries back then, then at least one of them could have made a note of it: "Memo to self: don't piss Yahweh off. THIS IS IMPORTANT".
Now, accepting for the sake of argument the magical elements of the Exodus story, does the behavior of the Jews sound remotely like anything anyone would ever actually do? It's more implausible than the miracles themselves.
As G. K. Chesterton wrote:
It really is more natural to believe a preternatural story, that deals with things we don’t understand, than a natural story that contradicts things we do understand. Tell me that the great Mr Gladstone, in his last hours, was haunted by the ghost of Parnell, and I will be agnostic about it. But tell me that Mr Gladstone, when first presented to Queen Victoria, wore his hat in her drawing-room and slapped her on the back and offered her a cigar, and I am not agnostic at all. That is not impossible; it’s only incredible. But I’m much more certain it didn’t happen than that Parnell’s ghost didn’t appear; because it violates the laws of the world I do understand.
Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.
™ Version 4.2
(1)