Where Angels Fear to Swim

Dan Beecher (0:00)

Hi everybody, well, we just wanted to come on real quick and explain a few changes. You may have noticed there are a couple of changes, things happening on the show. We wanted to explain to you what's going on so that you're on board with us.

Dan McClellan (0:14)

We recently signed on with a podcast network that is going to significantly increase the reach and the scope of our podcast. And part of that means that we're going to begin to run ads on our program. Some of these we will read, some of them will be slotted into specific places in the podcast by the podcast network itself.

Dan Beecher (0:39)

That's right. So we are part of AirWave Media. We're very pleased to be a part of AirWave. It's going to be great. The ads that you hear, just know we don't have a lot of control over which ones they are. We have chosen broad categories to exclude, but hopefully you'll hear only ads that you like.

If you want an ad-free version of the show that's still available over on Patreon, all of our patrons get an ad-free version of the show. Otherwise, thanks for being with us and we're excited about this opportunity.

And here's the show.

Dan McClellan (1:15)

So I think what we have here is a reflection, an echo of this idea that there are angels bound.

Only here it's placing them at the Euphrates River. And when they are set free, they're going to go and marshal an army of 200 million cavalry. And their horses are going to have the heads of lions and they're gonna breathe fire and their tails are going to be like scorpions.

Dan Beecher (1:40)

Where are you gonna find 200 million lion headed horses? I just, you know, you can barely find two of them.

Dan McClellan (1:48)

There's not a market for that anymore.

Dan Beecher (1:52)

Just like the Euphrates.

SPEAKER_3 (1:53)

Yeah.

Dan McClellan (2:00)

Hey, everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (2:01)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (2:03)

And you are listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we seek to increase the public's access to the academic study of the Bible and religion, and combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How do, Dan?

Dan Beecher (2:17)

Hey, man, I am excited. We are gonna delve into some crazy stuff.

Dan McClellan (2:24)

It's gonna get weird, that's for sure.

Dan Beecher (2:26)

Sure, and stuff that some people are still flogging as potentially possible now.

We're gonna find out. We're gonna find out if there is just literally underneath the surface, crazy things lurk here in the modern world.

Dan McClellan (2:46)

Yep, we're going to respond to a popular TikTok video from a popular creator that is going to remind those of you who are of a similar age as Dan and myself of an old Simpsons episode that involved Lisa Simpson and her skepticism.

Dan Beecher (3:06)

Uh-oh, skepticism coming up.

That sounds like it is time for a patented Dan McClellan catchphrase. Why don't you hit us with it?

Dan McClellan (3:20)

And today we are looking at a video from a gentleman who is on a handful of different social media platforms. Goes by the handle Khalil Storyteller on TikTok.

I'm not sure if that's their real name, but they're gonna talk a little bit about the Euphrates River. And this is something that has been in the news quite a bit recently and has been all over social media. But let's see what-

Dan Beecher (3:47)

To be clear, the river is real.

The river is real. We're starting with a real river, and we'll go from there.

Dan McClellan (3:56)

Yeah, and this has as much relevance to the accuracy of these claims as the reality of New York City has to the reality of Spider-Man. So let's get into the first part of this clip.

SPEAKER_3 (4:09)

Have you guys heard of the scary things happening at the Euphrates River? It's one of the longest rivers in the world, and it's located in the Middle East.

But lately, it's been drying up, and in 2020, they started finding ancient caves that revealed themselves while the river was drying up. The caves and structures had been there all this time, and no one knew about them.

Dan McClellan (4:27)

Okay, we're gonna pause there and talk about the two claims that are made here. One, that the Euphrates River is drying up, and two, that ancient caves that nobody knew about are being unveiled.

Dan Beecher (4:39)

Revealed, yeah.

Dan McClellan (4:40)

By the lowering water levels. The first claim is accurate in a lot of ways. The Euphrates River, the water level has been going down, and this is something that has been somewhat cyclical. Every few years, the water level goes down because of the convergence of a number of different factors, including climate change. But probably more directly related is a bunch of dams have been built further upstream on the Euphrates, and more people are diverting water further upstream, and less water is able to make it down into particularly the southern parts of Iraq. So this river that used to feed so much of Iraq's agriculture and their society is partly because of natural things that ultimately come back to human caused problems and other issues related to dams.