Americans will defend this!
>Those of us who study religion have known that the Bible’s creation narrative isn’t a factual account for quite some time, especially considering the ample evidence revealing parts of it were lifted from Mesopotamian myths, but now that has been confirmed a top Israeli newspaper.
>Haaretz, the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, said “evidence backing the Bible remains elusive” despite an in-depth investigation into the matter. The paper said researchers feverishly searched for evidence with “Scripture in one hand and cutting-edge technology in the other.”
>While the article is behind a paywall, the paper compared various accounts from the Bible, like the story in Exodus, and “dismisses them all as fables,” according to Newsweek. Most notably, the paper said “no evidence of the events described in the Book of Genesis has ever been found.”
>Of course, for most of us, this is old news. Most literal interpretations of the Bible fail to line up with history and science, and Creation myths are no exception.
>But it’s nice to have that confirmed by sources that would typically side with religion, especially when much of the world is falling into the trap of Young Earth Creationism, even trying to push it in public schools.
>Newsweek says Young Earth Creationism “directly fails science’s demands for coherence and hypothesis testing.”
>This is the best thing about the Age of Information. As Haaretz and others investigate the Bible’s claims and find them lacking substance, those results are more easily accessed by everyday people. Those people, after enough of this critical exposure, are seeing that holy books don’t give literal interpretations of the world. And since most harm by religion comes from rigid fundamentalist beliefs, this is something that will help us all in the long run.
Oy Vey
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/10/31/top-israeli-newspaper-agrees-biblical-creation-stories-are-just-fables