The god of Exodus 13:17-40-33 was inspired by a volcano.

Before I start I should say that I will be quoting from the NIV bible. Exodus 13:21-22 "By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people." Now we know that volcanoes produce huge plumes of smoke, often as high as several kilometers [1], we also know that plumes of fire can come from highly active volcanoes [2]. Both of these can be seen from many miles away and a group of people could easily follow it for several days as described in the Exodus account. Exodus 14:27-28 "Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived." We now understand that tectonic activity causes both tidal waves (as seemingly described here) and volcanoes, often in the same place at the same time [3], this may well have been part of an aural history about a tidal wave. (However I have to say that this could be some sort of symbolism for the sea peoples). Exodus 16:10 "While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud." This is talking about Yahweh appearing in a cloud above mount Sinai, this shows that there was a huge cloud over mount Sinai which again sounds very much like a volcanic plume. This could also be referring to a volcanic ejection. Exodus 19:16 "On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled." We know that volcanic plumes can attract immense lightning storms (volcanic lightning) [4], we can also attribute the sound of the trumpet to a sound produced by the eruption, remembering that an early trumpet would have sounded much more crude than a modern one. This also sound exactly like you would expect a primitive (for want of a better word) people encountering a volcano. Exodus 19:18 "Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently." First this says that mount Sinai was both covered in smoke an on fire. It also describes the smoke as coming from a "furnace", this seemingly perfectly describes the crater of an active and erupting volcano. Commandments I won't dwell on this much but the seemingly divine revelations received by Moses are not particularly original, even just going on the book of Exodus the commandment "You shall not murder." [5] is shown to have been already in effect in egypt [6]. Summery The way mount Sinai is presented in the exodus account is far too reminiscent of a volcano to have come by chance, even if we play with the idea that Yahweh El Abagashar did present herself on mount Sinai she must have done it in the form of a volcano as the similarities are too immense to brush off easily. [1] http://www.unige.ch... [2] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com... [3] http://www.elmhurst.edu... [4] http://news.discovery.com... [5] Exodus 20:13 [6] Exodus 2:12-1