Well, if I lied, and said 500 people saw X, and my statement was widely circulated wouldn't someone somewhere say "that's funny he says those people are around, but nobody has ever spoken to them and heard this outlandish story from them" 3 people seeing something is pretty easy to control, but 500 ? The Gospels were known to have been circulated, and there is plenty of criticism of the new faith in contemporary writings, but as far as I know, there is no one saying these 500 or at least some of them could not be found. As to creation, the big bang theory, as I understand it, proposes that everything there is, matter, energy, light, time and space began when a singularity (unknown) of infinitely compressed something the size of an atom, began for some unknown reason, to rapidly expand creating everything, the universe, the laws of physics, etc., etc. Nothing can ever be known in retrograde past the planck epoch, a point milleseconds after the bang, beyond which in retrograde, all laws of physics break down. So the singularity is proposed, but can never be "seen" or identified, or measured by the laws of physics, so the singularity, if it existed can never be known, So, I could say everything came from nothing, and no one could prove me wrong. Interestingly, the big bang shares much in common with the Biblical account of creation. There appears to be cross cultural prohibitions on murder (not killing), child molesting, certain forms of theft, and others. If good ( at least as far as these go), is present in humanity, where did it come from, and why does it exist ? The archaeological evidence is just one example of a continuing chain of discoveries that confirm the factual basis of the Bible, and these discoveries continue to this day, Credibility in hard physical evidence is being more and more established. As to evil, I think a mass murderer of children would be considered as evil in all cultures, but why ? What compels us to hold that the killing of children is wrong, evil ? I believe there are universal laws of good and bad, and traces of them can be found in all cultures, because humanity was at the beginning very aware of these laws, and although they have been severely degraded, a remnant of them remains. There is much more evidence from the Bible that I would be happy to share with you, as well as the reasons for my faith, but unfortunately I am an old guy, with MS, so typing can be a real chore, so hang with me and I will try to answer each of your questions, whatever they may be, but it will take some time
They may, or they may not. In a time when people didn’t know where the sun went at night and were largely ignorant and therefore gullible, it may stand to reason that not many disputed it. It could also well be that there were plenty of disputes that haven’t been discovered, or that were destroyed. And even if there were no contemporary disputes, there’s also no contemporary affirmations on anything of importance at all. And it may well be that they misinterpreted events that occurred. Could be that the resurrection of Jesus was a scam at the time, could it not? I’m not asking you to agree, but it’s possible no? Because the meatiest parts, the walking dead, the darkness and sounds... Things that would have been recorded in that time and spread like wildfire... There's just nothing at all. If that happened, if anyone observed at that particular point in history with the population of Jerusalem and all the people who visited the city, there would be volumes upon volumes of people all over the world confirming that the dead rose and walked the streets. THAT would lend credibility to the Bible’s claims (for me). But I understand what is there is enough for you, and I respect it and thank you for sharing your evidence as I asked
As for creation, first, we can’t say “Nothing can ever be known”. We learn new things all the time, and often enough, things once thought impossible. In fact it's quite frequent that things once thought impossible are discovered to be anything but. It’s better to say “with our current understanding”. But our current understanding also doesn’t require a supernatural source to explain anything, and all signs point exclusively towards nature, and not super nature. There has never been a claim made with regards to a god doing something, that once tested held up as "God did it". It's therefore reasonable with the mountain of such things through history, to be skeptical of this claim being any different. Even if we cannot demonstrate what happened beyond a certain point, that doesn’t lend anything at all to “god did it”. To claim that and to have it accepted, this would have to stand on it’s own merits, not simply because something else isn’t known. It's not a matter of "You can't tell me how therefore God." Just like if someone somehow tomorrow entirely debunked evolution, that does not take them even the smallest step closer towards creationism. They would STILL have to demonstrate that. But no, the Biblical account shares literally nothing in common with even as little as we know about how the universe exists, how planets, stars, etc. form, what we now know about life, etc…. The creation account is another massive notch against the Bible because the Bible got it demonstrably wrong on every part that matters, but that’s a bit off our discussion.
Anyway, as little as we know beyond a certain point in the universe’s past, there’s still no evidence at all towards super nature. Outside of the claims of a book that got a lot demonstrably wrong on the topic, but I do accept and respect that this is enough for you and many others
As for cross cultural prohibitions, not necessarily. There are cultures that don’t care one way or another about murder. If two tribal members fight and one ends up killing the other, in some cultures there’s not a single thought given to it. In some, if you kill a member of another tribe for no reason at all, which is still murder by our definition, it’s not only not frowned upon but actually celebrated. Child molesting is another. Plenty of cultures (some not so primitive as tribes even) fully accept and encourage sexual behavior with children, especially once puberty is reached. There are several things we think of as universal across mankind or that are objective morals, which are absolutely not at all. In history, morality and culture is even more diverse and less "universal". Even in fairly recent history.
Archaeological, I’d have to hear your examples to address properly but I’m not aware of anything of note that holds up the claims in the Bible, so if you have some, I’d honestly appreciate them. I’m not arguing to be rude, I would genuinely welcome anything I hadn’t seen before or anything you may have that supports parts of the Bible. I love to learn
Mass murderer of children isn’t even considered evil within the Bible. God in the Bible is actually quite fond of killing just about anything, especially children. All you have to do is be who he created you to be knowing you would be that way, and you'll suffer his wrath. And he'll encourage others to murder you as well. And nothing compels us aside from the culture we’re raised in. Again, there are parts of the world and parts of humanity that absolutely don’t view it as evil in certain circumstances while we largely view it as evil in any case. Plenty of cultures would consider killing children for trivial crimes (crimes according to them) while I'd wager almost anyone in the west would deeply be opposed to killing a child no matter what crime they committed. None of these things you've named are universal or stand across mankind, or time. So far, absolutely no objective code of, or source for morality has ever been found, and nothing at all about morality is constant across all of mankind and certainly not throughout history. At all.
As for your evidence, again, please don’t take my criticisms or questions as rude or picking you apart. I love to learn, and enjoy civil discussion
Even when there are disagreements, both sides can always learn from each other. Don’t worry about time, and feel free to DM or something if it’s easier! Send me anything you like, anytime and I'm glad to discuss it!
