Tigers!

I looked at the last few pages of this forum and couldn't find a similar thread so here we go.
From a theist's perspective I have often wondered what would be the top 10 most desirable archaeological finds and their justification?

Here are mine from Genesis onwards. The order is chronological, not necessarily in order of importance.

1. Noah's Ark - Should be self-explanatory
2. Egyptian records of the Exodus - Notes that the people called Israel/Hebrews left after a series of disaster befell the land inc. the death of the 1st born of the land of Egypt. Also notes that an army was lost chasing them.
3. Record of Hebrew/Israel conquest of Cannan - Notes that Joshua conquered Og of Bashan, Jericho etc:
4. David/Solomon - Record noting trade, treaty etc: with David and/or Solomon.
5. 3rd Cent.C copy of Daniel - Daniel is considered by many to have been composed during Maccabean period viz. mid 2nd Cent. BC. An earlier version would mean that many prophecies currently considered post facto are in fact pre facto
6. Quirinius census - Should be self explanatory
7. Herod's Massacre of the Innocents - Should be self-explanatory
8. Record of Jesus of Nazareth's cruxification during governership of Pontius Pilate - Should be self explanatory
9. Pre 70AD copy of Matt/Mark/Luke/Acts or Pauline letter/s - This would acknowledge the traditional church view that they were composed before the fall of Jerusalem and thus have some predictive verses.
10. Record of NT books predating Muratorian Canon, say 130AD. - Would acknowledge traditional church view that those books were widespread and apostolic at an early date.

Another way to look at this is to ask what 10 archaeological discoveries would atheists not like to have found?

Chris Weimer

Some sites could be considered evidence, but overall there's actually evidence against it.

I'd doubt we'd see this, even if it once existed.

This also would be hard to find. We don't have any manuscripts going back that far. Internal dating should work better. And I'm yet undecided. If you want, I bet you can convince spin to come and do a reading of Daniel. Only I volunteered, and we need at least three for the reading. Wanna join?

We don't have a lot of Roman records, however we should expect someone mentioning this, and we don't.

Shouldn't expect to see this.

Well, only the Pauline letters are expected to be before 70 CE. And that's still asking for a bit much. I'd suffice for early 2nd century.

Who says they were?

Buster Daily

OMG What a fun post. I will stick my neck out and say that none of the above fantasies will likely be found with the following exceptions:

4) Those might be the names of real kings/chieftains
8) Some record of some execution of some heretic could be found that might be a basis for a Jesus legend. His name might even be Joshua.
9) That would be sweet. Perhaps a Q-like list of sayings. I dout it though
10) Why not? Unlikely but damned exciting

The stuff that I personally would like to see found are many many many more first and second century Christian texts...even the heretical ones. Also, I would like to see more Mesopotamian myth texts like the Ugarit cuneiform. How about uncorrupted Josephus? Missing works from ancient historians? Can you imagine being turned loose in the library of Alexandria with a digital camera?

Buster Daily

Actually, if that happened I would be of little use to any of you. I would be checking out Archimedes and Ctesibius. Algebra was so close to being invented in the 3rd century BC (arguably). If only the printing press and a better number system existed...and if Archimedes would have been permitted to finish his circles. Maybe not. Geometry was a dead end.

Palimpsest is always best.

Chris Weimer

Which luckily enough for us allows to see Archimedes' work. Written under a hymnal, no less. How blasphemous!

Buster Daily

Man cannot live by reason alone. LOL. Imagine a time when a work of geometry/mathematics is worth less than the "paper" it is "printed" on. For some reason I have images of midwesterners wiping their asses on confederate dollars because they are out of corn cobs.

Now that I think about it, I have at least a half dozen Schaum's Outline Series paperbacks of engineering, mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc. printed on horribly cheap paper. Is that progress? I'm not sure.

Will the knowledge of the world today ever be lost? I'm not talking millions of years from now (although that is a good question). Is it actually possible for a neo-dark ages? Perhaps this is a topic for some new thread.

Apikorus

To this I would also add,

1a. The sword Excalibur

1b. The gold of the Nibelungen

jjramsey

IIRC, we do have a mention of the Qurinius census in Josephus. It's just that the evidence that is there doesn't sync with Luke.

Naphtali Jones

Nitpick alert! I know what you are getting at and I think this is a great idea for a thread, I just think the above comment makes it sound as if us atheists are more interested in upholding our previously held beliefs than in learning the truth. If the world was only six thousand years old and all the animals hopped off a boat 4500 years ago, I would want to know about it.

That all being said, when I was a fundamentalist teenager, I fantasized about becoming a geologist or an astrophysicist or an archaeologist and conclusively proving that the Bible was true. LOL! That's why this thread appeals to me so much.

I would want to discover:

1. Thousands of Egyptian war chariots mired in the muck at the bottom of the Red Sea.
2. The remains of Noah's ark (complete with fossilized DNA samples from every species on earth).
3. The Ark of the Covenant (complete with the ten commandment tablets, a jar of manna and Aaron's budded rod).
4. Solomon's treasure room.
5. A new radiometric dating technique which shows how wrong all of the other types are and proves the world is only six thousand years old.
6. People and their pet dinosaurs buried together with inscriptions saying "Asleep in YHWH".
7. The remains of the Tower of Babel with inscriptions in the original language.

For the New Testament I would like to discover the body of Jesus (oh wait...)

~Nap~

Buster Daily

Yeah, but I must admit that I do not want to suddenly realize that I must serve an evil, tyrannical god. That said, if those things Tigers! mentions existed and somehow proved some Christian/Jewish Yahweh, I sure as s*&t would want them found. How much evil god-butt would one have to kiss to miss out on the barbecue?

We all know what Tigers! is getting at, but he certainly mischaracterizes the atheist/skeptic position.