Tigers!

Imagine you are the boss of an archaelogical dig in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. One day is found in a tomb a carving that gives an Egyption account of the Israeli exodus from Egypt. While the carving does not mention the peoples' name it notes their leader spoke Egyptian well and was obviously familar with Egyption life & culture. He insisted that these people must be released or great disasters would fall upon the land of Egypt. It also mentions terrible calamites that befell Egypt which line up with what the OT describes including the death of all 1st born of Egypt. Pharoah says go but changes his mind and sends out an army. The army never returns, except for a few stragglers who describe a large wave that washed away the army but missed those people.
You have on your team agnostics, atheists, a Jew but no Christians. Do you publish? Yes or No? The discussion was vigorous.
I ask this because I have used this scenario for > 20 years now as a straw poll for people's willingness to publish information that might upset their cherished beliefs. My sample size has been rather small so I am opening it to all of you.
My results have been as follows
Agnostics - For: 20%
Against: 80%
Atheists - For: 50%
Against: 50%
Jews - For: 50%
Against: 50%
Christians - For: 99%
Against: 1%
I have no figures for pagans or muslims as yet.
Some explantions. The 1% Christian against was from a fellow who thought that the fuss was not worth the effort. I have great admiration for the atheists would are prepared to publish. When I asked some agnostics why they would not publish they replied that that would force them to take sides and they prefered not to do that.
I am wondering if the results from you all will follow the trends I have noticed or will vary.
So what say you? Publish or not? Please give reasons for your answer if you wish.

NZSkep

atheist - for.


I would publish - it's a no brainder really.
My beleif system is founded upon evidence - if I see new evidence then I see no problem in changing my belief system.

However, I don't think this would be substantial evidence for christianity (or any other religion), just that the story in the bible was probably closer to the truth than previously thought.
we know that some of the stories in the bible do have some factual basis that has since been changed to myth over multiple retellings and retranslations, this is no different really.
The big question should be, why wouldn't you publish? I think refusing to publish something because it goes against your beliefs is incredibly unprofessional and you don't deserve to be a scientist if that is the case.

quite frnakly I am more than a little surprised that 50% of atheists wouldn't publish.

Sigma

No question about it, of course I'd publish.

We don't know 0.000001% recurring about the universe, so on the grand scale of things, this isn't really going to upset the equilibrium of beliefs in my head.

Anyone so certain about their beliefs as to withhold publication of new evidence has got issues.

Tigers!

A question for the mods (or another person). Is it possible to have this poll (mine) changed so that it would display the nifty bar graph? I wanted that but obviously hit the wrong key or missed the right one.

Malachi151

Of course you publish. Any information should be published.

NZSkep

furether to my previous post, you say this is a streaw poll to see how likely people are to publish info that goes against their beliefs. If so, why are you asking christians? Surely this info serves to reinforce their beliefs if anything?

A better question to ask christians is whether they would publish info evidence that contradicts, say, the resurection.

matthewthomas

Another atheist-for.

It would be a fascinating find that should definitely be published. Perhaps it would cause some scholars to look again at the historical value of the book of Exodus. It wouldn't challenge any cherished belief of mine, though. I think that that Exodus from Egypt is unlikely to have happened, based on the current lack of archaelogical evidence for it. However, my atheistic view is not based on the lack of Exodus (although the two are consistent), so even if the Exodus did occur I would probably still be an atheist. I would need some evidence that God(s) was(were) directly responsible for the actions described in the tablet before I began to change my own stance.

Best wishes,
Matthew

DrJim

If you found it you must publish it. I think the real question would be is how one would handle the issue of whether the text is a forgery or not!

Minimalist

Since the question is hypothetical I answered based on the assumption that the tomb was real.

Of course such a find should be published. Even a non slam-dunk finding should be published and studied...such as a reference to Hebrew slaves in Egypt....at any time.

aa5874

Definitely "for".