The Bible contains historical inaccuracies

I hope this shapes up to be an enjoyable and informative debate. Contention 1: A single languageMy opponent's contention is that the chronology of Genesis 11 places the Tower of Babel, and therefore a single language, to approximately 2,400 BC. This would be a clear historical inaccuracy if the argument held water. However, it does not. Allow me to demonstrate. Problem A: Begging the questionMy opponent claims that it is impossible this is not a metaphorical language. He does not, however, provide any support whatsoever for this assertion. In fact, many Christian scholars consider everything from Genesis 1-11 to be a mythological account of origin for the Hebrew people, and not a historical account at all. I do not ascribe to this school of thought, but it is a legitimate interpretation of the text. Regardless, it is possible that this is a metaphorical single language, and until my opponent proves otherwise we can dismiss this aspect of his argument. Problem B: Using Genealogies to Determine ChronologyThere are several ways that the ancient Hebrews used genealogies. One is the standard "family tree" type of genealogies which speaks of direct descendants. If this were the type of genealogy that Genesis was employing, my opponent would be correct in dating the Tower of Babel to approximately 2,400 BC. However, there are other ways that genealogies were used. One was a genealogy of dynasties. So rather than say that X begat Y and refer to specific persons, the Scriptures are referring to X as the head of a dynasty and Y being the next generation of dynasty. This could mean that there are hundreds of years represented in each entry in the genealogy. I do not find this to be the most likely answer, but it is indeed possible. More likely however, is the fact that ancient Hebrew genealogies often skipped generations and only included significant figures. We see this compounded by the fact that the Hebrew words for Father and Son (Av and Ben) can mean descent or ascent of more than a single generation. We see this in Genesis 29 where the text indicates that Laban was the son of Nahor, when in fact he was his grandson. We also see this in the genealogical account of Jesus in Matthew, where the Author skips insignificant generations to group the generations in clumps of 14. In Genesis we have no way of knowing how many generations are actually present, as we have no way of knowing what generations were skipped. [A]Because of these two facts, we cannot exclude the Biblical account because of the Chronological dating of the divergence of language. It is entirely possible, in fact likely, that there was indeed an original language that was then disbursed and confused. The Biblical timeline is not established prior to the call of Abraham in approximately 2000 BC (Genesis 12) and we therefore cannot positively say that it contradicts our knowledge of history. Contention 2: Single Day CreationMy opponent claims that it is impossible for Genesis 1 to be correct since it states that the world was created in a single day. This has several problems, I shall elucidate two. Problem 1: Begging the QuestionMy opponent assumes naturalism and a God-less system. However, if in fact there is a divine God as described in the Bible then creating the world in a single day is no challenge. My opponent bears the burden of proof to show that the system he is proposing is correct and has not done so. He is simply assuming naturalistic explanations. Problem 2: Literal DayMy opponent refers to Exodus Chapter 20 (The 10 Commandments) which compares the Sabbath to the 7th day of creation. He assumes that this demonstrates a literal understanding of the 6 days of creation. This is a fundamentally flawed comparison. Primarily, my opponent should note that the 7th day in Genesis never ends. It does not follow the same cycle of "Evening and Morning, the X day. " This is picked up upon by both Rabbinical and Christian sources (including the author of Hebrews). While it is possible that the assertion my opponent is making is true, it is hardly univocal and therefore must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Furthermore, many Christians see a distinction between the creation of "the heavens and the earth" and the first day, seeing the creation of heavens and earth as a act that happened prior to day 1 with day one starting with "Let there be light. " My opponent needs to demonstrate that the earth being created in a single day is the ONLY viable interpretation in order for this to be considered a historical inaccuracy (Beyond proving that Genesis 1-11 is a historical account in the first place). Contention 3: Mass DeathsMy opponent asserts that it would be impossible for the numbers represented in 2 Chronicles (A total of 1,500,000 Men) could not occur. There are again several problems with this contention. Problem 1: Begging the QuestionMy opponent assumes that there are many more deaths that occur beyond the numbers listed. Both on Israel/Judah's side, as well as further deaths during the pillaging. However, the Bible does not record that these deaths take place, so we cannot consider these deaths in the total. He also assumes that 50% of the area are men (5,000,000) and 50% of those are adults (2,500,000). However, he has done nothing to show that those statistics are viable. We don't know if there were 70% men, or if 80% of the men were adults. My opponent is building castles in the sky. He then asserts that killing 60% of the men would leave lasting population declines for centuries, but does not prove that A) This is true or B) There was not a population decline. Problem 2: Numbers and their use in the Ancient WorldMost ancient cultures didn't use precise numbers. They used estimates and often times rounded up. It is extremely unlikely that there were exactly 500,000 and 1,000,000 men killed. Even in today's culture we do not consider estimates to be inaccurate. This leaves us with a large variance of possible ACTUAL numbers that lead to this estimate. Reasonably, we could say that the first number could be anywhere from 400,000 to 600,000 and the second number could be from 750,000 to 1,250,000. Problem 3: The Reliability of Historical InquiryMy opponent is presenting a historical theory regarding the population of the world. I am presenting a competing theory. The Bible recounts that there were 600,000 adult men that were part of Israel during the exodus (Exodus 12:37). The reigns of David and Solomon were prosperous and fruitful (and relatively peaceful). If population increased even 5% (Conservative guess) between the exodus and the rule of Ahijah we would now have 900,000 adult men in just Israel. Does my opponent expect you to believe that Israel made up nearly 1/10th of the total population of the Mid-East during this era, when empires like Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, and Phoenicia were all a part of this area? The Bible clearly presents an alternate theory of world population to my opponent's source (which looks like it was made by a Highschooler in Computer Class), however he has given no reason to believe that a source which was written DURING the era in question would be less accurate than a projection created 4000-5000 years later. In ConclusionMy opponent has presented what he believes to be three historical inaccuracies. However, his arguments are all examples of begging the question, with little evidence to support his assertions. He has not demonstrated that any of the passages in question MUST be interpreted in the fashion he has demonstrated, and therefore has not demonstrated that they constitute a necessary historical inaccuracy. Thank you for reading this debate. I look forward my opponent's closing argument.