Lazy Atheism?

[Belacqua]

I am talking about primitive humans.

Well, "primitive" is kind of a tricky word.

Ancient writers seem to have been more comfortable with various means of expression. Today a lot of people think that a good book is like good journalism or a science text -- each sentence has a single clear interpretation. Old-time people wrote that way sometimes (for example, if they wrote in 1750 BC to say that the copper they had received was of unacceptably low quality) but it depends on what they were writing about. 

Remember that in Jesus and Paul's time there was no such thing as the Bible. The books that became the Old Testament were still floating around independently. It made sense then (as it makes sense now) to think about the purpose of each one, and its intended audience, and apply the hermeneutic approach that's appropriate. 

Obviously when the Song of Solomon says "Your eyes are doves," this is not literal. So we know that at least some metaphor is considered acceptable. Which other sentences are non-literal is a case-by-case question. 

Plato's writings contain numerous myths, allegories, symbols, references to gods which may or may not be believed in, all that kind of stuff. For the kind of subject he was discussing, straightforward science-type language wasn't appropriate, and probably still isn't. Homer's epics were probably written as straightforward adventure stories, wildly exaggerated from real events, but by the first century they were being interpreted as containing hidden Neoplatonic messages. Porphyry wrote a fascinating interpretation of a minor scene in the Odyssey, about the cave where Odysseus stashes his stuff. Cicero wrote an interpretation of a dream that Scipio had, even though the contents of that dream are not taken to be a literal report of real events. Then Macrobius wrote a commentary on Cicero's interpretation. All of this was thought to have significant philosophical meaning, despite being based -- knowingly -- on fiction. 

Paul, and the author of John's Apocalypse, were Hellenized Jews converted to Christianity, who would have had some familiarity with the philosophical methods of the time.

The "primitive" guys were comfortable with all this. Non-literal texts were considered worth their attention. I don't see this as something that ends even though we are now so completely non-primitive.