(March 14, 2013 at 5:25 pm)CleanShavenJesus Wrote: ...when Christians like a certain part of the bible, they like to take it literally. But suddenly when there is a flaw, it's an allegory? ....if you follow the Bible, don't cherrypick. Just because it makes no sense, doesn't mean it suddenly has a second meaning. It just means it makes no sense.Some more strident and literal minded Christians think that scriptures can only be trusted 100% or not at all. That means they believe that if one minor thing is in error then how can you know if parts critical to the faith are not also in error? I do not find 'biblical inerrency' a very helpful approach to have.
Whether the bible is literally true or not is completely irrelevant to me. I have no problem with considering Genesis as a collection of legends and parables well suited to conveying spiritual wisdom to an ancient story telling culture. Not much different from Greek Mythology, which contained some truth appropriate to that culture and from which we can learn as well.
There was probably a local flood, the same one recorded in Gilgamesh and Chinese folklore. How the ancient Hebrews told the same story is much more interesting to me than the bare facts presented. I think God was able to take existing folklore and fold a spiritual meaning into it.
Then 400 years go by and you get Moses and that starts the written record. I think most of the things that happened starting with Moses happened pretty much the way they are described. But he still rounds some numbers, like 100,000 men went into battle, as opposed to say 983,532. Numbers have symbolic value, so when I see a number like that I don't think of it as a historic fact but a number pointing to some timeless spiritual principle. Generally, I don't have a problem with someone who "made their home in...that fish's abdomen". Miracles are miracles. So, the Gospels happened pretty much as described, miracles and all. As for Revelations, I think that it is so obviously symbolic one would have to be insane to take it literally.
(March 14, 2013 at 5:25 pm)CleanShavenJesus Wrote: The flaws in the Bible are there, whether Christians want to twist the words or not.It depends on what you mean by flaws. I understand the point though. Sometimes I think God puts those in there as prompts to remind us not to take the text literally and look for the meaning within the text.
(March 14, 2013 at 5:25 pm)CleanShavenJesus Wrote: It makes logical sense to take it as literally as possible. But, hey, that's a different argument.Why? If you wrote a love letter to someone, you would not give them a textbook. You would write a poem or some flowery prose. Now, the bible is not a love letter except in the most abstract way, what with all the smiting and boring geneologies. If a God of infinite Love and Wisdom chose to communicate with hairless apes, I would think he would have to express Himself in analogy and parable because any thing else would be completely beyond our comprehension.
