ripley

C14, from my meagre understanding, is accurate to within a margin of 50 years, provided the sample isn't contaminated in some way.

Their mental prowess should be no different than anyone else's (merely as a function of time), since we're all commonly descended. Biology is one of the few things I've studied in any great depth, and your YEC argumentation is thoroughly specious to mine eyes. But it's off-topic, so never mind.

IamJoseph

Its contaminated if there's no surrounding evidence of its datings. These things are easily doctored to come up with a preferred reading - like dating the cave or mud bits around it and subscrbing this instead of the relic's actual datings.

I know of no contemporary evdence of Paul aside from Josephus - which means his writings in the later NT are not evidenced of being written by Paul. This will change if a new discovery is found. The same applies to all the NT writings - there is no surrounding independent evidences.

It is even more diabolical concerning the Quran - it is written later, by different authors, and it is in contradiction of other far better sources. The situation is that more than half of humanity believes the NT & Quran - both being based on belief, when their relevent space-times make belief subserviant to its historicity factors.

The dead sea scrolls cast a negative light on the NT veracity - namely the total absence of reference to its writings. Admittedly, the scrolls were mostly Jewish writings, however the package also contains scrolls which are not religious and contemporary - like the Temple and Damascus scrolls, listing minor events, which makes it implausable the events mentioned in the Gospels would not have been mentioned. These are factors which have greatly contributed to the wave of anti-religious beliefs, and its not without good reason: the primary blame should go to Christianity and Islam.

mountainman

To a certain extent I agree with this assessment.

Christianity did not emerge on the heels of the destruction of the jews.
Christianity emerged as the destructor of the Hellenistic civilisation.
No disrespect intended but IMO the Jews are a red herring.

Far greater than the destruction of the Jews in the first century,
was the destruction of the Hellenistic civilisation and traditions
and literature and ancient architecture in the fourth century
by the christian emperors and their service-oriented christian minions.