(April 5, 2013 at 2:28 pm)Golbez Wrote: How about the examination of the Bible that strongly suggests that it's primarily written by 5 people, with distinct styles, for their own political and historically relevant purposes, which included multiple polytheist references? Is that too wooden?
I don't think it's five people, as in five individuals. I think it's a reference to five sources-- groups who were pushing a certain agenda. The priestly source (P) was looking to reinforce the influence of their class, or caste, by making god more concerned with rituals and ceremony. The Yahwist source (J) seemed more concerned with reinforcing the monotheistic reverence of the God of Armies and may have been more concerned with religion's influence on behavior and nationalist/ethnic support. And so on. There may have been dozens upon dozens of writers, for all we know.
It really is too bad that we may never find earlier writings than we have, so that we might better trace the way the teachings grew and changed and how they were finally mashed together into what we call the old testament now.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
