(July 14, 2015 at 10:53 am)Pyrrho Wrote:The foundation of Christianity is the belief in the resurrection and divinity of Jesus, so as long as you believe in that, you're as Christian as anyone else. Just my opinion. I don't want to approach a different variation of the no true scotsman fallacy and say some people are not really Christians(July 14, 2015 at 2:38 am)whateverist Wrote: But any theist adept enough to read the bible allegorically is not going to subscribe to any bullshit about the bible being inerrant. Neither would you need to think the whole thing is golden. It may just be good for a few good parables and symbols. The point of such a reading would not be to understand the natural world as including supernatural bits. It would simply be to get some insight into the human condition and the possibilities and perils that entails.
Long before we had the mastery of discursive expression we have today we would have been understanding things allegorically. I'm not talking about a primitive, silly science. Thor isn't a failed hypothesis for lightening and thunder. It is entirely about people attempting to understand themselves in the world, not the world itself. Leastwise, that is the only part worth caring about.
The thing is, once one gives up on it being all correct, why regard it as at all special? There are plenty of stories that have meaning, like Aesop's fables, and they make a whole lot more sense than the stories in the Bible. Why not be an Aesopist instead of a Christian? Why call oneself a "Christian" if the basis of Christianity is nothing special at all?
My own take on this is that many modern Christians have basically rejected the foundation of their religion, but keep their religion anyway. And that is very irrational.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you