2nd May 2010, 10:20 AM
Cool story. These guys are not the only ones desperate to identify physical evidence to support their interpretation of scripture. Israel and roundabouts is verily swarming with all manner of (usually American) faithful tinkering with the finite resource and busily (and often ingeniousely) matching their findings to biblical text. Often, politics plays a huge part in these endeavours and it really is worth a read of the exploits. Perhaps if these guys took the time to recognise the metaphorical nature of some scripture to be found in the Talmud/Torah/Apocrypha/Gospels and also recognised that much of the biblical record (as it survives today) is but a flimsy and heavily edited glimpse of the original writings, so much time and money could be saved!
As a bit of an aside......... How many of us archaeologists have actually taken the time to study the Talmud/Torah/Apocrypha/Gospels at least as historical documents/social commentary/studies in phenomenology/theology and afterlife systems? It seems to be the case that archaeologists (en masse) exclude these writings on the basis that God does not exist...ergo....the script is not worth studying?
Any "Dawkins Athiest Archaeological Research" society would have a long way to go to disprove the existence of God stratigraphically !
As a bit of an aside......... How many of us archaeologists have actually taken the time to study the Talmud/Torah/Apocrypha/Gospels at least as historical documents/social commentary/studies in phenomenology/theology and afterlife systems? It seems to be the case that archaeologists (en masse) exclude these writings on the basis that God does not exist...ergo....the script is not worth studying?
Any "Dawkins Athiest Archaeological Research" society would have a long way to go to disprove the existence of God stratigraphically !