Duvduv

No, just as there is no archaeological evidence for many other accepted events in history that are taken for granted.
I do not rely on archaeological evidence. And neither do those who reject the Exodus, as I have pointed out a few postings ago.

steve_bnk

You are starting to rant and are going off tooic....as you said we are talking about the biblical Exodus.

The general question of how religious histories are synthesized based on evidence, or lack of, is another thread. You can start one. It would be a good one that goes to the foundation of all the BCH debates.

What is YOUR view of Exodus and why?

Toto

In each case, you have to consider what evidence would be expected. Small communities or sects might not be expected to leave archaeological evidence if they were not in the habit of building churches or meeting halls.

steve_bnk

'...I do not rely on archaeological evidence. And neither do those who reject the Exodus..'

As is continually said in the atheist-theist debates, the onus is on the claimant to make the case.

We on the thread judge Exodus false on a lack of archeological evidence and analysis that show how physically in terms of resources such as area, food, water, and waste it is hard to support the story..

Add to that given the mass of people, someone would have seen it and commented on all those people in the dessert. There we would have been contact with outsiders, even trade.

If you assert Exodus is true, then you must supply evidence for us obvious skeptics.

Cheerful Charlie

Long ago in alt.biblical.errancy we chewed this over very thoroughly. Tel El Qudeirat
is an oasis with a spring. It is not big. There is a smaller oasis and spring nearby.
Both are small. If we pick a number, combined circumfrence of one mile, (far too optimistic), imagine people with water jugs lining up for water. say 1 million people. 3 foot per person over 5280 feet is 1760 people. Each que is going to be lonnnnnnggggggg.
And each water carrier must get water for their families and the large numbers of cattle large and small Exodus says they lead out of Egypt.

See also numbers 2. The numbers given for numbers of Israelites cannot be a error, a scribal slip of the pen. Exodus tells us the Israelites outnumbered the Egyptians 2 to 1.
It was not just a few slaves slipping away into the night as per some apologists.

Even if you slash numbers by 90%, it still does not work.

Each jug had to be big. 5 gallon clay jugs weigh quite a bit. Over 38 years many would have broken. Where are all the shards of broken large water jugs? And they certainly did not leave broken Egyptian style pottery they brought with them.

For all that pottery they'd need to make their own. Where are the many kilns, and where did they get wood to fire them? The kilns and broken jugs would not just vanish.

Of course cattle could not be allowed near the water, they'd poop all over and befilth the water source. How many water jugs could be filled and carried away in 24 hours?
We had a a lot of fun with this. How much water does a cow need? A sheep?

And I imagine that millions of feet of water carriers at the spring would turn all into a nasty mud hole very quickly.

Fire wood. Where did they get enough for 2 1/2 millions? Unless you like your goat raw. Goat sushi. Ugh! And fire wood for the many many burnt sin offerings. So, yes they ate cattle despite what some xians might claim otherwise. long ago, Col. Bob Ingersoll did a hillarious set of riffs on the massive glut of holy sacrifices the greedy priests had to choke down. Ah the smell of the burning guts and livers of 10,000 cattle.

Cheerful Charlie

semiopen

Yes, you're one of those sane guys who thinks that Moses cowrote the Torah with God, and Zipporah (wife of Moses) converted to Judaism.

From Africa to Ifrīqiya: Settlement and Society in Early Medieval North Africa (650–800) discusses the Archaeological issues from this period. But you're not really interested in that are you?

You're just quoting from some rag that gives stupid talking points for fundies.

This is pretty much on the same level as this crap

101 evidences for a young age of the earth and the universe

You are just trying to deflect the subject raised by the OP.

Duvduv

No, I am not quoting from anything. But I guess you believe an alternative view verbotten. Instead of attacking me personally, why don't you address the substance of my questions concerning archaeology??

Duvduv

The issue is not with the Exodus but with the limitations of the field of archaeology. A big difference........

outhouse

Why do you ignore that Israelites factually evolved from displaced Canaanites and a vast minority of other Semetic people who settled the highlands after 1200 BC?

Duvduv

That is simply diverting. The point is the limitation of relying on archaeology in a whole host of areas. There is no sense in trying to create artificial criteria for what constitutes the demands of evidence in this area.

On the contrary, if an enormous amount of resources is required to satisfactorily demonstrate the specific existence of several million people in the desert, then the resources need to provide evidence for smaller cases should be less. So unless you believe archaeologists are too lazy or stupid to come up with any evidence for the cases I mentioned, then you have to wonder about what archaeology can demonstrate given existing resources and technology.