(July 15, 2015 at 3:37 pm)Pyrrho Wrote:(July 15, 2015 at 12:51 pm)Aoi Magi Wrote: Hmm another question, how do you know which parts of your scriptures are allegorical and which are literal?
If the genesis is allegorical, could the god mentioned within be allegorical too?
Why not? If seemingly random bits of it are just allegorical, god could just as well be allegorical, too. So maybe we can all be Christians while being atheists.
I certainly don't know - But "could" isn't a good answer - Honestly, this is one of the few times I feel comfortable telling people to go to a priest. Seriously, they probably know more than scripture than most of us do, since they've been studying it for years - I don't know what's allegorical or not, and I honestly don't care - But it is obvious that in literature some sentences and tales can only be interpreted as allegorical (For example, the sentence "he was tall as a mountain" can't be taken literally by anyone with a minimum of literary skills). I'm not really an expert to think my isolated opinion on an internet forum can truly determine which parts of the bible are literal or not - I'm sure the church has passed regulations and rules concerning that.
To be fair, if I ever went back to Christianity I would most certainly see the biblical tale of Genesis as allegorical because the whole story really sounds like one (creating the world in six days, creating a woman with a man's rib, the forbidden fruit, sounds strangely familiar and most likely some old lesson than exactly real events - This is what I would think if I was a Christian). I've never met a creationist in my life, so I may have a different view on this subject.
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