(July 10, 2022 at 8:02 am)Belacqua Wrote: I do not see this as a reason to type false things about history. For example, it's just not true that sacred writings were originally meant and interpreted as literal truth, and only later came to be read as allegory. And it's just wildly false to believe that a person in the 16th century would be burned at the stake for agreeing with Anselm, Augustine, Aquinas, Ficino, and many others, that much of the Bible should be read in non-literal ways.
Let's take Augustine. According to him the sin of Adam and Eve was passed down the male line, transmitted in the semen - so how is that not taking the Bible literally?
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
