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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Rohl's Chronology Deconstructed

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  • From: Brian Roberts <formoria AT carolina.rr.com>
  • To: dwashbur AT nyx.net
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Rohl's Chronology Deconstructed
  • Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 07:04:05 -0400


On Monday, July 26, 2004, at 02:38 PM, Dave Washburn wrote:

(snip)

Please. We all know that archaeology is based on the accident of
preservation. To say that we "ought" to find archaeological material at such
and such a place for such and such a time, is to bypass the actual sporadic,
not to say whimsical, flyspecks of preservation that we do encounter and
suggest that what is essentially a random process - the accident of
preservation - should follow some kind of rule set that makes what we want
accessible to us several thousand years later. It just doesn't work that
way. Factors such as erosion, rebuilding, destruction on a massive scale by
enemies, and what-have-you, combine to make the whole thing a very
unpredictable process. That may not be what we want, and we may not like it,
but those factors tell us, in essence, that if we don't like it, too bad.

This is why arguments from silence will never get anywhere, especially in this
field. To say that "there's no positive evidence where we 'ought' to expect
it," is equally to say "there's no negative evidence where the accident of
preservation might have wiped something out, either." It would be nice of
scholars would get a handle on the fact that absence of evidence does NOT
equal evidence of absence. If you're into C programming, it would look like
this:
(absence_of_evidence) != (evidence of absence)

(snip)

Brilliant elucidation, David! I couldn't have put it better myself. I've been trying to explain the truth of this to Walter for years now it seems, but my words seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
Maybe yours will have better effect.

Brian Roberts





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