(March 13, 2013 at 4:00 pm)CleanShavenJesus Wrote: ...I don't pretend that those things suddenly have a different meaning because I want them to.It sounds like you believe that symbolic analysis of a text is completely arbitrary, at least when it comes to Scripture. No doubt for some people that is the case. It takes just as much effort and skill to work the right-side of the brain as it does the left-side. Rational thinking takes diligence and a reasonable understanding of logic. The more complex ideas required even greater effort and skill. Like rationality, symbolic thinking also takes skill and effort. It takes a lot of these to work through the complex symbols and allegories of Scripture.
I know that many atheists on the forums have at one time in their lives been deeply immersed in a specific Christian tradition until some combination of legalism and the absurdity of a literal interpretations, etc. turned them off to the whole enterprise. You've been there and done that. I get it. And I do not disagree that some lampooning of very rigid and shallow approaches can be justified.
But turn-about is fair play. If the literal minded atheist demands that the bible must be taken completely at face value, then he has the same objectionable attitude as a fundamentalist Christian. Point is, it's very easy to be a fundamentalist, you don't have to think passed the surface of the text. It's also very easy to be a literal minded atheist. Neither take the time to consider anything beyond what's right in front of their faces.
