was there Mesopotamian floods?, Was there an exodus of slaves from Egypt?, Can a man named Samson kill people with his bare hands?, Could a belief protect you from being bitten by a snake?, can a tree and a mountain move?, Does it literally rain cats and dogs? Are any of these things, aside from the literary impact of the last, impossible? I can imagine the perspective of the writers that a flood that included every tiny place you'd ever heard of would seem like a world wide event. I can see lots of exaggeration. Just because something is observable reality doesn't mean it's the truth, and just because it's far fetched doesn't make anything a lie. They may not have been scientifically accurate enough for our modern sensibilities, but just because they may have been exaggerated or written within the understanding of the authors does not mean it's less valuable or a lie.
Let's not beat around the proverbial burning bush here. If the Bible had written that Noah's flood was exactly 126,492 miles of water centered around X there'd still be an archaeological search and arguing over when, where and why it happened. As there are many narratives discussing floods and the authors of the Bible obviously witnessed no such thing, I'm willing to take it as a narrative. As with most narratives, they seem to have the most impact when they have a kernel of truth or an audience already familiar with the stories. I focus on the word science because a lot of people take a literalist view of the Bible and compare it to a literalist, quantitative methods used in science and mathematics like their purpose is the same thing. They don't do that with Aesop's fables, or stories their parent's told from their parent's childhood used to teach them right from wrong. My dad told me that he was the best pool player in the Navy, I guess I've been lied to all my life, for shame.
Let's not beat around the proverbial burning bush here. If the Bible had written that Noah's flood was exactly 126,492 miles of water centered around X there'd still be an archaeological search and arguing over when, where and why it happened. As there are many narratives discussing floods and the authors of the Bible obviously witnessed no such thing, I'm willing to take it as a narrative. As with most narratives, they seem to have the most impact when they have a kernel of truth or an audience already familiar with the stories. I focus on the word science because a lot of people take a literalist view of the Bible and compare it to a literalist, quantitative methods used in science and mathematics like their purpose is the same thing. They don't do that with Aesop's fables, or stories their parent's told from their parent's childhood used to teach them right from wrong. My dad told me that he was the best pool player in the Navy, I guess I've been lied to all my life, for shame.
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post
always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
