Patterns of Evidence: Exodus

Went to see Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus last night. Was excited to go see this film when I first heard about it, and I was not disappointed. Mr. Mahoney has a gentle touch and deeply driven enthusiasm for the subject matter. Facts were placed before the audience in a manner that was easily understood, making a lot of sense. Grateful for the opinions of the professionals and for the panel discussion at the end, with all of my favorite commentators. Hope believers and nonbelievers alike will see this film and decide for themselves. Great film for young people as they begin to form their own opinions. For me, the facts were clear. Grateful to all those archaeologists who have made it their life's work to uncover the details of past generations. Grateful to Mr. Mahoney for taking this important moment of biblical history and making it come alive.

I had yet to see a documentary, until now, that gave both sides of the argument an equal shot. This also felt like a movie with the music and effects that demonstrated certain pivotal points that the Director was making in his search for the truth about the evidence for the Exodus. The exposition is not over the top, and the interviews are concise, to the point. Not your typical documentary that is for sure, and a ground breaking one at that. I believe this documentary re-opens a debate that many considered closed for decades now. One of the reviews that I agree with said that, "After watching this documentary, any open minded individual would say to himself/herself, 'This makes sense'; consequently, at the very least, incline him or her to do more research for themselves." I highly recommend this to everyone, be you religious or not.

I am Christian to begin with, and I'm proud to say that my faith is strong in The Lord. But I'm not a scientist, though I am curious and often times seek the truth. It's very much faith empowering how this film elaborates on the story of Exodus, at the same time comparing it with coherent scientific evidence. Yet this movie also still nicely leaves room for faith. As faith is the basis of things we can't see, one needs faith to understand the reasoning this movie presented, while the evidence itself still gets debated by scientists. I for one at prior to this movie wasn't aware of the gap of date settings between scientists, or even the whole counter-idea of the Exodus itself, as being a myth. At a skeptic's perspective this may prove that ignorance is bliss. But I see it as the fact that faith in God can't be distinguished by mere scientists' wisdom, which base their findings on mere rags and tatters.

I took a look at this, but sad to say, this is anything but scientific.

The scientific method - formulate a hypothesis and attempt to disprove it. Falsifiabilty is a cornerstone of the scientific method, and always beware of anybody who claims to have 'proved' something.

The non-scientific method (used here) formulate a hypothesis and attempt to prove it.

If you tried hard enough you could 'prove' that werewolves are real, or that Barak Obama is a Muslim.

The Biblical account MAY be true, but this contributes nothing to the story of Exodus.

This film provides an engaging introduction and overview of the evidence for the entry of Joseph into Egypt, the 14 years of plenty and famine, the fruitful multiplication of Jacob's descendants (Israel), their subsequent slavery, the 10 plagues, including detailed evidence of the 10th plague, the exodus from Egypt into Canaan and Israel's conquest of Canaan. It demonstrates the difficulty with dating ancient events, but also the patterns of evidence that line up with the Biblical record and also lines up against the Egyptian historical sequence, but is generally panned today since it does not match up with the modern dating of Egyptian history. This evidence calls for an objective review.