Friday Night Theology

Stoned Moses?

7 March 2008

Here's a claim you might not have heard before: Moses was stoned when he received the Ten Commandments and the "revelations" on Mount Sinai resulted from an altered state of consciousness. Or so suggests an Israeli researcher, who believes that psychedelic drugs formed an integral part of the religious rites of the Israelites. In his article, the researcher sets out the basis for these claims: "The ideas entertained here were primarily based on the fact that in the arid areas of the Sinai Peninsula and Southern Israel there grow two plants containing the same psychoactive molecules found in the plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew Ayahuasca is prepared." In other words, this highly speculative idea is predominantly based on the fact that two particular plants with hallucinogenic properties grew in the relevant part of the Middle East. This is far from being persuasive evidence as it is probably the case that every part of the world has some plant or fungus with hallucinogenic properties - just consider the many species of magic mushroom found in the UK. The presence of these fungi hardly demonstrates that we all go round getting high on them!

Yet, this Israeli researcher is not the first person to try and write off religious experience. We are not usually accused of experiencing God because we've taken drugs, but we are often told that such experiences are simply the result of hyped up emotions, hysteria or believing what we want to believe. So, how do we respond to such claims?

Firstly, real experiences of God bring genuine change. We will all know stories of those with addictions whose lives were turned round when they encountered Jesus. But when was the last time you met anyone who said 'I was once an alcoholic, but I haven't touched a drop since I discovered atheism.' If our experiences were nothing but hyped-up emotions or hysteria then they may give us a good feeling, but they would not transform our lives. Part of the evidence, then, that these experiences are real is simply the new life that they bring.

Similarly, when people say that our so-called religious experiences are nothing more than seeing what we want to see, then how do they explain the fact that frequently people's experience of God is not what they expect or even want. When God tells you to give up a highly paid job to serve the poor and marginalised, it's hard to suggest that this is because it's what people want to hear. Or when God tells someone to change their lifestyle it's hardly because this is what they are seeking.

Finally, people in today's post-modern society frequently claim that while religious experience may be OK for us, it's not for them. Yet if we believe that God wants to speak to and be known by all people, it is simply not enough to just nod and accept this. There is no reason not to boldly but gently suggest that God wants to speak to them too, if only they would ask him and seek him with all their heart.

Susannah Clark, Public Theology Researcher