The bible and archeology

AnarchyMell
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The bible and archeology

Ok, so I dont know if I'm stupid, but the only site can I can find refuting biblical archeological evidence is TalkOrigins.  Can someone help me find some more?  I know I saw somewhere that the field of biblical archeology is dwindling because more and more evidence is surfacing that proves the bible wrong, but I cant find it now. 

 

I would appreciate any help.  Everytime I google it, I get creation/christian sites that say that archeology proves the bible right on every account.  Now I know that is not true.

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Renee Salm has made the

Renee Salm has made the claim that the city of Nazareth did not exist at the supposed time of jesus, as lack of archaeological evidence attests.

He has a site at http://www.nazarethmyth.info/ but I'm not I'm not certain how trustworthy it is.  Rook for one I recall expressed reservation about Salm, and had no problem with Nazareth existing at the purported time.  At least worth considering, but deserves further research.

 

 

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The Bible Unearthed:

The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Neil Asher Silberman and Israel Finkelstein.

http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Unearthed-Archaeologys-Vision-Ancient/dp/0684869136/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273965644&sr=1-1

This is an archaeological survey of the Middle East.  All those people who moved to Israel after WWII?  They had children.  Many were encouraged into studying Archaeology as it pertains to the bible.  So this book reviews the published archaeological works for the time of the Torah.  It was available at my library.

There are other references from that page on Amazon for other related books.

Like you, I have found wading through all the christian web sites to find one or two that are actually scholarly is a drag. 

 

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cj
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The Bible Unearthed:

Fat fingered another dp...


 


AnarchyMell
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Thank you so much!My

Thank you so much!

My husbands friend is a major xian and he is telling me that there is tons of evidence supporting the existence of god.  He hasn't given me any yet, but I want to make sure I am armed with the facts so I can offer opposition to his claims.

Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man's subordination. Anarchism is therefore the teacher of the unity of life; not merely in nature, but in man.

Emma Goldman


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AnarchyMell wrote:Thank you

AnarchyMell wrote:
Thank you so much!

My husbands friend is a major xian and he is telling me that there is tons of evidence supporting the existence of god.  He hasn't given me any yet, but I want to make sure I am armed with the facts so I can offer opposition to his claims.

Yeah faithheads usually say that. It's what their pastors told them, knowing none of them would actually look any of this "evidence" up, much less ask what it is.


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OK, I don't have a specific

OK, I don't have a specific resource handy for archeology as such. However, I would comment on the matter.

 

Archeology is as a matter subject to the trappings of science and in fact, depends on the harder sciences for much of what it does. So modern archeologists will publish in professional journals and are subject to critical reviews of their work.

 

As such, all the usual side work applies. If some particular interpretation of a set of evidence does not make sense to other people in the field, it will get called out.

 

Let me pick on the Exodus as an example.

 

If the events happened as the bible says, then there must be evidence somewhere. Many thousands of jews wandering in the desert for forty years must have left behind some evidence of their passing.

 

As it happens, the distance from Cairo to Jerusalem is about 350km (although that is a straight line and across water part of the way). Let's double that and say 700km. Let's also assume that breaking camp every morning and setting up camp at night took so much time that the average pace on the trip was 1km/day. So the whole trip could have taken two years.

 

However, the bible tells us that it took forty years. So they must have been wandering in circles the whole time. So where are the camp sites?

 

Past that, the bible also says that a large portion of the Egyptian army was wiped out. If that is true, then the Hittites would have noticed and acted on the fact. Since we know that they did not roll over Egypt at any point, we can say with a high level of confidence that even if there was an event that killed Egyptian soldiers, it must have been so small that it went unnoticed in the ancient world.

 

Another point would be that the bible tells us that the jewish slaves were a significant part of the economy of Egypt at the time. Well, we have extensive documentation on that matter and there was no huge change in the economy of the region during the time when the exodus could have happened.

 

I could go on but you get the idea.

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