Science vs History
History should have been a scientific disciple. Experimental science (i.e. science done with test tubes) does not and cannot know what happened in the past, it can only offer a view whether or not a theory is likely. The only way of knowing about the past is to ask people who were there. A scientist at a crime scene cannot say what happened; the forensic science process works because a detective finds witnesses and then works out a probable account of events. Only then does the detective call in the forensic scientist. The scientist analyses the crime scene, looking for clues that prove the witnesses and detectives’ theories are right.
The same is true with history; we have written accounts from the past. Scientific enquiry from many disciples can analyse these accounts and determine their veracity, or otherwise. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a good example, we know this account comes from around 2400 BC; The Biblical account of the flood gives a timeline placing the same event at 2370 BC, exactly the same place on the timeline. The Gilgamesh Epic was written independently of the Biblical account yet both detail the same event.
The laws of evidence used across the Western World for two hundred or more years have consistently shown that where two eye witness accounts of the same event occur and when each person recorded slightly differing details both accounts are true. Details may overlap but never exactly match because each person recorded different aspects; they might have even made mistakes recording different details but they won't match. Errors may exist in an account but that doesn’t nullify the account. If they were exact matches, then key facts were copied through collusion and neither was independent.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is eerily similar to the biblical account of the flood. Many details in one confirm the other, yet in no way was one a copy of the other. They were written by two different people, who didn’t know each, two people recording the same facts, not two people copying each other.