Just noticed this forum and can't help but revive the pointless argument that can obviously go nowhere, haha!
As a history enthusiast that's neither Christian or hard core skeptic, I'm finding this an interesting topic. So far the evidence at present seems to be:
1. According to non-religious scientists, Tall el Hammam seems to have been destroyed by "A catastrophic heat event" which leveled it and several other in the Jordan/Israel area around the Red Sea. At Tal el Hammam evidence shows this event created the substance Trinitite, which is a melting of silicates which occurs during nuclear explosions. So far this seems to show an energy event worse than even the pyroclastic flow
which occurred in Pompeii during the eruption of Vesuvius.
2. There seems to be no volcano near this region of the Dead Sea; no lava or any other evidence of a purely geological event.
3. The current official scientific interpretation of the site suggests that a large comet entered the atmosphere here but exploded with force in the air before striking the ground. I have not seen an estimate of the megatons of energy created in such an event but it would seem to be very high if Trinitite formed.
4. Sulfur can indeed be a major component of comets and there are there are several academic papers on the subject, including:
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/462/Suppl_1/S253/2633389
5. Sulfur balls/chunks are indeed found in the general area of this "catastrophic heat event". However they are found only where they would have fallen into water, and are recovered in areas where rivers and the Dead Sea subsequently receded. It is *theorized at this time* that sulfur did fall elsewhere but anything that did not strike water did burn in the event. Yes, sulfur is flammable.
It is difficult to claim 100% truth, but so far secular scientific evidence does seem to *at this time* generally support something close to the biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah. Argument is inevitable - Christians
very much want this to be Sodom, and secular skeptics
really don't want there to be any event which might encourage more general religion and religious belief.
My personal take is this may just be a historical event which was at the time interpreted in a religious context. A comet in essence hit the earth. So what? We know meteorites and other celestial bits have struck the planet before. A part of Phoenician civilization got wiped out in the event. Is that proof of God's punishment, or simple horrible luck? Not all Canaanites were destroyed and Phoenician civilization continued after all. If stellar events like this are proof of Divine action then God hated dinosaurs MUCH more than he ever hated Canaanites.
It's hard to blame the ancient Israelites though... If something comes from space and dusts off your enemies right before your eyes, what are you going to do besides say "SEE? God HATES those guys!!!"
As far as the Argument over this, it seems to me everyone can take a win here if they want to. The Christians can fairly reasonably consider this a probable confirmation of an event mentioned in the bible. Worry about the spread of religion aside, secular science can consider this a wealth of archaeological, geological and astronomical scientific data.... that has as reasonable explanation just like the KT (Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction Event) around 65 million years ago.