Did Moses (pbuh) really exist? Are semetic religions really divine?

I have stumbled on some shocking stuff. Archeologists in Israel who were out looking for proof that Jewish exodus took place from Egypt 4000 years ago, found no such proof.

The Bible Unearthed, subtitled Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts is a 2001 book about the archaeology of ancient Israel and its relationship to the origins of the Hebrew Bible. The authors are Israel Finkelstein, Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, and Neil Asher Silberman, a contributing editor to Archaeology Magazine.
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Now, this is dangerous territory. Christianity is dependent on Judaism as it is claimed that Jesus (pbuh) was a descendant of Abraham. Islam also depends on Judaism in the same way. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is also a descendant of Abraham. In the same way, the Holy Quran is full of stories about Moses, David, Soloman, Abraham, Noah and other prophets.

All three semetic religions, viz, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are threatened by this book.

If Israeli archeologists could not find any evidence of the exodus even after searching for the last 50 years, then this is very bad news.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bible_Unearthed

Origin of the Israelites

The book remarks that, despite modern archaeological investigations and the meticulous ancient Egyptian records from the period of Ramesses II, there is an obvious lack of any archaeological evidence for the migration of a band of semitic people across the Sinai Peninsula, except for the Hyksos.
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Nevertheless, the book posits that the exodus narrative perhaps evolved from vague memories of the Hyksos expulsion, spun to encourage resistance to the 7th century domination of Judah by Egypt
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Silberman & Finkelstein argue that instead of the Israelites conquering Canaan after the Exodus (as suggested by the book of Joshua), most of them had in fact always been there; the Israelites were simply Canaanites who developed into a distinct culture
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David & Solomon or the Omrides?

Although the book of Samuel, and initial parts of the book of Kings, portray Saul, David and Solomon ruling in succession over a powerful and cosmopolitan united kingdom of Israel and Judah, Finklestein and Silberman regard modern archaeological evidence as showing that this is a pious fiction.

Archaeology instead shows that in the time of Solomon, the northern kingdom of Israel had an insignificant existence, too poor to be able to pay for a vast army, and with too little bureaucracy to be able to administer a kingdom, certainly not an empire; it only emerged later, around the beginning of the 9th century BCE, in the time of Omri.

There is little to suggest that Jerusalem, touted by the bible as David's capital, was little more than a village during the time of David and of Solomon, and Judah remained little more than a sparsely populated rural backwater, until the 7th century BCE
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The Bible Unearthed concludes that the biblical writers deliberately invented the empire, power, and wealth, of Saul, David, and Solomon, by appropriating the deeds and achievements of the Omrides, so that they could then denigrate the Omrides and obscure their accomplishments, since these kings held a religious viewpoint that was anathema to the biblical editors
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Here is a review of the book from Salon --> http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2001/02/07/solomon/index.html

Please debunk my post. Please...
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EDIT:

Book's review in israeli paper Haaretz --> http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/...&subContrassID=14&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Book review by The Institute of Bible and Scientific Studies --> http://www.bibleandscience.com/bible/reviews/unearthed.htm

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Did Moses (pbuh) really exist? Are semetic religions really divine?

gauharjk Notable Member

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Did Moses (pbuh) really exist? Are semetic religions really divine?

gauharjk Notable Member

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