[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Finkelstein, who has not visited the dig but attended a presentation of the findings, warned against what he said was a "revival in the belief that what's written in the Bible is accurate like a newspaper." That style of archeology was favored by 19th century European diggers who trolled the Holy Land for physical traces of Biblical stories, their motivation and methods more romantic than scientific.

What harm is there in this kind of motivation? A lot more stuff ends up getting discovered, and the archaeological community as a whole can sort out the significance of the discoveries.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Oh, and let's not talk about those who troll the Holy Land looking for evidence that the Bible did not record historical events accurately, their motivation and methods more cynical than scientific.

[fatez]

What harm is there in this kind of motivation? A lot more stuff ends up getting discovered, and the archaeological community as a whole can sort out the significance of the discoveries.

I follow this stuff religiously (sorry could not resist). A magazine I subscribe to has Finkelstein and quite a few archaeologist in the Holy Land in it very frequently. Quite a few of them trash the Bible and sometimes believers (whether they are Christian or Jewish).

A few years ago, they published an article that lamented the fact that the interest in Biblical archeology is waning. What they were really lamenting was that the funding for their research was waning because they were trashing people's beliefs. Most believers want to hear about the Biblical lands in context to scripture. These guys set out to destroy scripture and wonder why nobody wants to hear about their radical views on Biblical lands.