I don't understand something. The orthodoxy
claims that they have a continuous onbroken chain from
Mt. Sinai. Then why aren't there any copies of very
ancient Torah scrolls? All the pagan myths can be found
in ancient cultures much before "matan Torah". But
as far as I know Torah scrolls are much
younger.<br>Also, it seems that at the time of Ezrah the scribe
everyone was basically forgetting the Torah. It's my
contention that no one ever heard of it yet and that our
priestly caste simply designed most of the religion around
or after that time. It's very hard to undertand from
my point of view why people believe in unscientific
miracles.

This verse in the Talmud, Sukkah 20a, says that Ezra the scribe restored the Torah to Israel when it had almost been forgotten. I corresponded with some orthodox Jews locally and one of them claimed this was only for the "oral Torah not the written". Sounds very contrived to me. He went on to say it was forgotten and restored several times before it was written down.