There is archaeological evidence for some events described in the Bible, and that’s been acknowledged several times in this thread. “The events,” meaning all of them? No, there isn’t. That’s a ridiculous claim. The Bible isn’t even internally consistent, nevermind the idea of all the events in it being supported by exterior evidence.
No, it really doesn’t. Part of the problem is that you are quick to declare a lot of things as evidence and treat them as very important: for example, you’ve said it is meaningful that 5 out of 36 flood myths have a dove in them, including the Biblical myth. But 31 out of 36 don’t. By your reasoning, doesn’t that make it more likely the Bible is wrong are there were no doves? And like I said, about half the myths don’t have a divine cause for the flood (according to your chart). What does that say?
There is no archaeological evidence for the supernatural events in the bible. None for the Exodus, for Sodom and Gomorrah, for the Garden of Eden. Nothing. It mentions some places that people living in the middle east at the time, thousands of years ago, would have known about. Harry Potter mentions London. That means that the writer knew about London, it doesn’t mean that wizards exist.
Again, you are *asserting *evidence, not *providing *it.
Let’s find out, shall we? Name the event and link to the archaeological evidence that supports it, and I’ll take a look at it. If you could, in the interest of fairness, link directly to the evidence and not to a Christian interpretation of the evidence, please.
You must first define what kind of evidence would compell you. Even if all the scientific data in the world strongly suggested a global flood, you would come back and say well that still doesn’t prove that the Biblical story really happened. Just proves a flood once happened. Even if they found the ark, you would say that is not proof of anything. Just an ancient boat. There’s always a way out for atheists.
So you don’t buy my original argument, no big deal. What sounds more likely:
Human beings, separated by thousands of miles and culture somehow all conjuered up the basic same myth story involving an angry God/gods, saving a family and animals, and a boat or vessel. In other words, if you took people from all over the world that lived near an ocean, put them in a room, and asked them to write a story involving an ocean, every single one of them would create similiar stories.
OR
The flood story originated from one source and was handed down throughout cultures with details being changed from person to person.
The latter sounds like normal human behavior to me!
I’ll just repeat the request for you to name some. Not in the Bible, of course.
Don’t know much about archeology, do you? We’re not talking cities, we’re talking campfires, broken bits of pottery, scat. It’s the bloody desert - things get preserved very well there. How do you think we know about prehistoric man? Definitely not from their nonexistent cities.
I’ve read the Pesach story plenty. Where exactly is the detailed knowledge of Egypt? Remember, Egypt was a going concern when the Bible was actually written, so it is not like the authors needed to be expert historians to know about Pharaohs.
But of course, the atheist will ignore the vast historical details that the Bible gets right on the money as the Israelites intersected with cultures from Babylon to Rome.
When the Goyisher Bible was written Rome was in charge, so getting that right is not exactly proof of anything. Not that it even got it right - no census for instance, just a story to explain away the unpleasant fact that the supposed Messiah was born in the wrong place. Getting ancient history right would be more impressive, and that count the Bible gets an F.
Who’s discounting Troy? What is being discounted is that the existence of Troy proves the events in the Iliad actually happened. New York is real, but Spiderman comics are not good for current events.
Quite true I am happy to say. However they did read Hebrew, and they knew that the supposed virgin was actually a young girl, so the fulfillment of the supposed prophecy by the virgin birth was the fulfillment of a misreading. The Messianic prophecies are very clear and they involve the Messiah being a successful king, not someone who gets arrested and executed about five minutes after he shows up in Jerusalem. The serpent is a serpent, not Satan. (Who is God’s good bud - see Job). I can go on and on.
Isn’t it convienient that this never, ever happens? There is no evidence for the supernatural events of the bible. None. Zero. You complaining that it wouldn’t convince atheists, is missing the central issue. That there isn’t any evidence.
Many of them are descended from the same myth. Others are based on floods. None of that changes that we know factually that there was never a global flood. We understand geology well enough as a science to tell you that.
Except there was no flood. There is no evidence for a world-wide flood. None. Aren’t you missing the big issue here, that there was never a flood?
Current evidence is pretty much against your favor. The Flood did not occur.
It makes you wonder why you believe there was a flood in the first place. Just because the Bible said so? The Odyssey is also a myth but I’m pretty sure you don’t believe what it has to say about the universe and its Gods?
I’ve been lurking in this and other threads and I just have to ask what this would look like?
The percentage of atheists in the American population has been estimated at something less than 10% (although there are statistical challenges to making such estimates).
I personally find it hard to believe that such a small minority—one that has grown in recent times—could have such a major influence on perceived history, science, theology and literature.
But the question remains: what would demonstrate to you that someone had considered a position with an open mind? Would they have to agree with your conclusions?
You still need to give some evidence. Not long ago scientists came up with evidence for a real global catastrophe - at the end of the Cretaceous. There was pushback, of course, but more and more supporting evidence was found. When I heard Luis Alvarez talk about this they hadn’t found the impact site yet. He thought Iceland looked promising but was far from sure. Then the actual site was discovered. Science accepts all kinds of fantastic things so long as there is evidence for them.
And, remember, 300 or 400 years ago most believed in the Bible. If the evidence was there devout scientists would have found it. Instead, the more evidence they turned up the less likely the Bible story became.
As I said before, the Greek flood myth did not involve a boat. Why is that again?
As for evidence, the last time I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art I saw a nice display of Chinese pottery. The oldest examples were very old indeed - in fact before the supposed flood. It is obvious that the styles of pottery were related, and that the newer ones were descendants from the older ones. Now, please explain how the descendants of Noah who made it to China (and there is no gap in the habitation record that would correspond to a flood) would manage to pick up the same pottery style as those who lived there before and were drowned. Quite odd, isn’t it?
Your second story is very unlikely because it presumes a single origin for all people, who then spread out all around the world and took that story with them. That contradicts a lot about what we know about human migration patterns. In the real world, humanity spread out from Africa at wide intervals, and I hope it goes without saying that this was before writing and language was developed. You’re also requiring trans-oceanic travel, and I suspect that people who know more about the development of the individual myths could poke some holes in your timeline. Your theory also overlooks a lot of the differences between the myths: your own chart noted that half the myths didn’t have a divine cause. If you take diverse human cultures settling around rivers, needing their water but at the mercy of flooding, I think what you would see is exactly what we have now.
The problem with “pro-Christian” evidence is that it’s not compelling evidence. If your belief system is based on faith, it’s not going to convince atheists/scientists who base things off evidence. The reason for this is because without evidence, you can justify anything to be true – so why pick one in particular out of an infinite number of possibilities? Why do you believe in Jesus but not Thor? Why not Allah? Why not Votan? Why not Ra? Why not Apollo? Why not Zeus? Why not the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
It would be like me pointing to a flower and telling you that it’s definitive proof of the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s divine, noodly glory. It’s not really “evidence.” It’s just arbitrary speculation that’s just as good as any other. So why should you believe it?
In short, atheists ARE generally open-minded to evidence. For many people, that’s why they’re atheist to begin with. But just because someone doesn’t blindly accept poor arguments doesn’t mean they’re closeminded. It means your evidence has problems with it (or it’s not existent at all) and doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Just because the Bible might get something right doesn’t mean it’s divinely inspired. I could make 100 random predictions about the future and bound to get a few of them right by chance alone. The Bible also gets quite a few things wrong, and demonstrably so. You can’t just ignore this, play to confirmation bias, and only pay attention to the evidence you favor.
I won’t argue that part of my beliefs is based on faith but for me personally, compelling evidence is witnessing supernatural miracle healings, people’s NDE’s, and encounters with the supernatural. I’ve had experiences where I would go to a church service and a complete stranger would come pray aloud for me, and name the exact problem that I was suffering from. The odds of that happening by random luck are astronomical.
I certainly hear nothing about Zeus or spaghetti monster affecting people’s lives and causing supernatural events. Your comparison only holds water if you can claim that there is zero evidence to support the Bible and Christianity. To do this conclusively, one thing you need to discount with solid proof every testimony of healing. I presented one remarkable case with documented photos and verification from a doctor, and that was immediately dismissed without consideration. That tells me right there how atheists certainly do not consider evidence.
How about this one? Part of a baby’s heart was formed overnight after praying for a healing. Are you going to claim this is a perfectly natural occurance? http://www.awmi.net/extra/healing/scott
What’s remarkable is your interpretation of the book of Genesis. Jesus Christ is not mentioned once, anywhere in the OT, much less in Genesis. If you think otherwise, it is because you are distorting text to match your expectations, much like the pious everywhere. You are adding 2+2 and getting 5.
Just how different would you expect human experiences with a local flood to be? There’s a whole lot of water, some people escape, some don’t, then things dry up and return to normal. That’s going to be the only sure, common thing between stories, but does that mean they all experienced the same event?
Beyond that, the stories are quite different. Some people escaped in boats, some climbed up the mountains; some are saved God X and some by God X, some by more than one god.
So you see the similarities and ignore the differences, but the similarities are all in your pious mind.
You can only conclusively say there was no flood if you personally witnessed the events in that time period. Did you? A more acceptable position would be to say the current evidence calls into question the Flood story, but that’s all. I won’t argue against that.
I will say modern day science is not infallible. Last time I checked, man could not even explain something like the placebo effect.
Amazing! Could you provide a link to the actual news story that reported the growing back of a human heart overnight? If something like this actually happened I am fairly certain that the story would not be found only on a Christian glurge site.
A cornerstone of Christian faith is the revelation of Jesus Christ in the OT. In Genesis, God is mentioned as We, first reference to the Trinity. Jesus is part of the Trinity.
Isaiah 53:3–7 clearly describes the coming of Christ.
Isaiah 50:6 describes his punishment.
Could you tell me why the only mention of this miracle of a heart growing whole overnight comes from the Andrew Wommack Ministries website? Not a mention from other source.