[Serious] Literal and Not Literal

[Deesse23]

A purely literal reading of the Bible is the compliment that poorly-educated believers pay to science. They think that the only way to get important meaning from a book is to read it like a science text, so they read it that way. In this they ignore the history of their own religion and unknowingly agree that scientific statements -- ideally unambiguous, requiring no interpretation, and either true or false -- are the only good kind of statements. 

One could also conclude the exact opposite, that insisting a literal reading of a book, whose claims are demonstrably scientifically wrong in many instances, is not a compliment but disrespect to the achievements of science. One could conclude that an (re-)interpretation in accordance with scientific findings is actually a compliment being paid to science.

No one can read like a first century Palestinian anymore -- we all read through the lens of our own time, which includes a history. It's doubtful that the authors of the Genesis creation story meant it literally, but even if they did it's of no interest to us, because things have moved on.

I disagree
A proper reading of ancient texts always includes one informing himslef of the background of the time the stuff was written in, the person who wrote it and the possible audience. When i took latin classes and we translated classic roman literaure, 50% of the time was devoted to this background, in orde to be able to understand the text from the persepctive of the times it was written in.

Secondly in regards to the ambiguity of the  NT, Jesus gave a huge middle finger to those seeking less ambiguity. He uses parables, riddles, and sayings that his own disciples had trouble understanding.

A teacher who intentionally keeps his disciples confused is an ass imho. Particularly when he is the reincarnation of a god. Whats the purpose of an (omni)benevolent deity being an ass?

But secondly even if we were to say that Bible was penned by God himself, the idea that God would be less ambiguous in his communication is false. Perhaps if all God wanted to share with us is some series of scientific and historic facts, about his engineering skills, and magical performances, so we can be astonished by his technical feats, that criticism might make sense. If god came down, and put on a supernatural magical show, all we can do is clap, and then get on with our lives as we normally do. This seems to be the sort of God, many atheists appear to be on the look out for, a sky wizard so to say.

How do you know what your god wants? How do you know what kind of god your god is?
Its one thing to not explain your magic to the mere mortals at all. After all you are the boss of this show. But giving highly ambiguous information and keeping humans intentionally confused just makes him an ass. Life is not a stage show. Its more serious than that. I am actually shocked you are comparing the struggle of all humans in our history, particularly all the hardships and suffering to a magic show. But otoh its a cornerstone of your religion to have contempt for fellow human beings and pretend it to be compassion. Thats the part where religion has poisoned your mind.