I once or twice told an opponent on my former board (when I'd trashed some argument of his and he was playing trhe 'disrespect' card) that if I didn't think they were worthy of discussion, I wouldn't be spending the time doing it.
I've said a couple of times that
otseng does as good a job of Bible apologetics as any could do. And (given the nature of Faith -based apologetics) is a fair and honest opponent and I love it how I am pushed
I thought, after I'd done the debate on the Exodus on my former board and I researched into the Hyksos and Theban dynasties that I knew a bit about it. I knew
nothing. 
compared to what there was to know. I hope it hasn't been too off topic and boring as not everyone will be fascinated by the Hyksos, Sea peoples and the Bronze age collapse as I am, but it is needful to put Genesis and Exodus against what archaeology and inscriptions tells us about conditions in Egypt, which after all questions the Bible from the Flood through to the emergence of Israel in the 11th c BCE.
If that's correct as the history and archaeology seems to indicate.
The thing is that that Faith -based apologetics works differently. On the thread of the Genealogies we had a poster looking for someone who would give the 'line of Mary' apologetics an easier pass. That is absolutely the problem with having Faith in the Bible and trying to make possible explanations ('undisprovables' as I call them) credible. It is not about what the evidence says but about what Faith can be clung to, and that is absolutely the problem and why something that sounds frankly (as I said) as crazy as flat earthism (the tower of Babel) is seriously discussed.
While we have to trust the whole body of geology, anthropology, linguistics and ancient history which all gets investigated, argued about, verified and cross - checked before it gets into the text - books, Biblefaith has to replace
or reject a supposition that as humans (on genetics from one origin) marched all over the world a million or so years BC and changed in many ways, including languages (and we know from writing how languages can change in a few hundred years, with vowel - slips as well as new peoples), after Neolithic farming and herding communities 10,000 BC which surely already had different languages, we got the first cities around 3,000 BC and this human habit of piling up brick or stone to reach the heavens and the gods that lived there. That paints a picture that refutes one tower and an event (not clear what) that caused everyone speaking Adunaic (which might be Sumerian) to start speaking something else.
We'll note right away how Bible apologetics will work within the ancient history framework (Sumer, Egypt, ziggurats, pyramids) and even the Chronology until it conflicts with the Bible, and then it is simply rejected. This is symptomatic of Faith -based thinking and is not only biased and opportunistic (making honest debators look crafty) but is wrong -headed thinking that gets projected onto the skeptic side (1)
Even without the noticeable Babylonian elements of the story, Babel is so counter to everything that archaeology and anthropology shows about the continual growth of cultures 4-3000 BC that Babel shouldn't even be seriously considered as anything but a made -up myth, were it not that some want to believe in Genesis as a reliable literal record of events.
A possible topic, knobsdude, is why Genesis even matters. Well, there's the doctrine of Sin, without which atonement for and salvation from Sin falls flat, rather. But it's more a Shibboleth of Religious Faith. Icons, like the Pill in the 60's, transplants in the 70's, Stem cells in the 80's and mask wearing, vaccination and Dr Fauci right now are Icons of Faith to be fought for and the science is simply rejected.
Genesis - literalism and arguing for the Israelites in the Hyksos dynasty and Canaanite script actually being Hebrew is about Biblefaith and not about following the evidence and it's what rationalists like myself have to battle all the time.
Not only do I have to make the case for the 'science' but I have to eliminate any possibility of a Bible - fit hypothesis. Like
otseng was arguing for 'indirect evidence' (which, being Interpreted, meaneth
'can we wangle the Bible - story into the archaeological one?' Perhaps we could, but why
should we? Because someone dearly wants to believe a particular theory. And pointing this out is indicating the problem, not a personal attack, which is what they often mistake. I never take an accusation of Atheists being like Stalin or Pol Pot personally
It's a different mindset from the evidence-based one, which goes with the theory that best fits the evidence, not the preferred one that could possibly be true, even if it relies on supposed evidence that hopefully will turn up one day. It's why I have to scream in block caps 'You Have Nothing'

because an absence of any credible evidence isn't what counts in Biblefaith but whether and how Faith in what the Bible says can be maintained (if only as an undisprovable remote possibility).
It's also why I realised (long ago) that discussion with the intent of getting the Believer to say
'I guess I was wrong - the Flood and Ark likely never happened' is better not made the intent but in arguing out the case to test it and present it to a wider audience. Which is one reason I left my former forum and came here and why I appreciate debating
otseng so much, notwithstanding the Faith -based mindset which of course goes with the territory.
(1) oh God here we go. But the Bible - apologists are going to see it as 'Biblical Archaeology' and think that skeptical scientists are taking an archaeological/historical model that fits the Bible and fiddling it to suit the Bible -denier bias by arguing against anything Biblical. Absolutely that's how they see it. Absolutely in a par with the Flat earthist who believes that global science if faking space - photos to discredit his Truth. Bible apologists rarely look as crazy but the Faith -based thinking is the same.