The book of Genesis is poetic?
January 31, 2015 at 10:39 pm
(This post was last modified: January 31, 2015 at 10:40 pm by Fendon.)
I was having a discussion with my Dad the other day about religion. He grew up as a Christian and has spent the majority of his life devoted to God. He is totally tolerant of my Atheism and loves a decent conversation about it, as long as I can be somewhat engaging with the points I made.
Anyway, in this particular discussion he mentioned that I had made a critical flaw in my analysis of the Bible in relation to the origins of the earth. He discouraged me from taking the scriptures literally, instead suggesting that Genesis could simply be poetic or a collection of songs devoted to God. He acknowledged that Christians had been taking the Bible too literally and that he didn't believe the Earth was created in seven days.
I did some further research and did find some links, which I've been told I can't post until I've been a member for 30 days. Basically, I found that the origins of this theory actually arose from the emergence of the Theory of Evolution. Many Christians (not all, sadly) had a sudden realization that their previous understanding was limited and so in an attempt to reconcile religion with naturalistic theories, they started making shit up. Thus, the poetry/song theory emerged.
I'd quite like to hear from others about this. Whether you're a theist or atheist, I'd like to know what you think of this theory.
Anyway, in this particular discussion he mentioned that I had made a critical flaw in my analysis of the Bible in relation to the origins of the earth. He discouraged me from taking the scriptures literally, instead suggesting that Genesis could simply be poetic or a collection of songs devoted to God. He acknowledged that Christians had been taking the Bible too literally and that he didn't believe the Earth was created in seven days.
I did some further research and did find some links, which I've been told I can't post until I've been a member for 30 days. Basically, I found that the origins of this theory actually arose from the emergence of the Theory of Evolution. Many Christians (not all, sadly) had a sudden realization that their previous understanding was limited and so in an attempt to reconcile religion with naturalistic theories, they started making shit up. Thus, the poetry/song theory emerged.
I'd quite like to hear from others about this. Whether you're a theist or atheist, I'd like to know what you think of this theory.
"I don't know, therefor God" is always going to be easier than "I don't know, therefor let's find out - Hemant Mehta
