RE: The Historical Jesus is real and He rose from the grave
April 7, 2014 at 9:00 am
(This post was last modified: April 7, 2014 at 9:04 am by Tonus.)
(April 4, 2014 at 2:58 pm)ShaMan Wrote: It's misunderstood by Christians, atheists, and agnostics alike. The spirit of that teaching is that there are some among this [age] (this current developmental stage of human-kind) who would not taste death (experience a spiritual sleep) prior to Christ (spiritual realms) returning in glory (providing an individual with a spiritual awakening). The bible is an esoteric text, and in the wrong hands it can produce all kinds of error and destruction (as history has proven well).Most theists will explain a difference in interpretation by first pointing out that everyone else has it wrong, then providing the "correct" interpretation. Occasionally they will provide some out-of-context verses from parts of the Bible to help bolster the point, or (as you did here) simply offer the alternative with no additional support.
Once we assume that a particular text is metaphor or allegory, the possible interpretations and explanations become almost infinite and can support just about any approach. As others pointed out, this does not speak well of the idea that it was inspired by a being of immeasurable intellect and wisdom.
(April 6, 2014 at 5:23 pm)Revelation777 Wrote: I'm not here to be your jester.
Not intentionally, perhaps.
"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
