(July 17, 2011 at 10:56 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Absolutely, Beth. As quoted by the xtian writer, Origen, the second century Greco-Roman writer Celsus said, c 180 AD:Now how do you know that this text wasn't written to counter the alleged delusions of Christianity, other than there is no evidence to support the hypothesis of a government trying to delude people.
"Christians, needless to say, utterly detest one another; they slander each other constantly with the vilest forms of abuse, and cannot come to any sort of agreement in their teaching. Each sect brands its own, fills the head of its own with deceitful nonsense...".
"It is a socio-cultural boat anchor." - That's an opinion, not a fact.
"So is he still here or a hit and run?" - I'm still here. I just have to attend to things that aren't virtual
Evidence that the Jews were in Egypt, they were enemies in the eyes of Egypt: http://www.bibleandscience.com/archaeology/exodus.htm - Take your time to read it.
They were enslaved because they had repetitively claimed they had a God greater then any of the Egyptians. Last night, I couldn't find the evidence for an exodus, but I did find evidence (or lack of it) to conclude that there was no uprising by the slaves (no weapons found, only dead firstborn which is explained by the confirmed plagues) and they weren't freed by the Egyptians willingly - after all, they were enemies at the time. The only other scenario is that they left through an exodus as described by the Bible.
