RE: Christ's birthday
November 13, 2009 at 5:02 pm
(This post was last modified: November 13, 2009 at 5:05 pm by chatpilot.)
When I use the term literalist I am referring to the manner in which certain texts of scripture are interpreted. To some extent outside of the scriptures I am a literalist and agree that faith and science are two totally incompatible concepts and ideologies. The bible does in some instances make claims that try to interpret what we now understand through science, and on many occasions the bibles interpretation has proven to be false.
Example: Joshua 10:13
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
This so called miracle is placed in an historical context within the text itself. Taking this literally would have to mean that the sun and the moon literally stood still for about an entire day. This would work if you clung to the primitive belief in an earth centric universe. But as you know or at least I hope you do this is an impossibility. The sun is in the center and the planets revolve around it. For this miracle to happen several things would have to occur. The Earth would have to stop spinning on its axis and moving in its orbital pattern, which if this ever did happen then we would not be here discussing this topic at all. If this event actually happened it could cause the destruction of the entire universe as we know it.
One way to interpret this is that someone with no knowledge of astronomy was writing from the point of view of himself. If you wake up each morning and see the sun apparently rise in the East and set in the West then you would surmise that the sun is moving across the skies on a daily basis as the Egyptians and Greeks did. This would make more sense but it still would not explain the extra hours in the day. You can say that this was allegorical but it still does not explain how you would come to that conclusion since the text is embeded in a so called historical event.
Example: Joshua 10:13
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
This so called miracle is placed in an historical context within the text itself. Taking this literally would have to mean that the sun and the moon literally stood still for about an entire day. This would work if you clung to the primitive belief in an earth centric universe. But as you know or at least I hope you do this is an impossibility. The sun is in the center and the planets revolve around it. For this miracle to happen several things would have to occur. The Earth would have to stop spinning on its axis and moving in its orbital pattern, which if this ever did happen then we would not be here discussing this topic at all. If this event actually happened it could cause the destruction of the entire universe as we know it.
One way to interpret this is that someone with no knowledge of astronomy was writing from the point of view of himself. If you wake up each morning and see the sun apparently rise in the East and set in the West then you would surmise that the sun is moving across the skies on a daily basis as the Egyptians and Greeks did. This would make more sense but it still would not explain the extra hours in the day. You can say that this was allegorical but it still does not explain how you would come to that conclusion since the text is embeded in a so called historical event.
There is nothing people will not maintain when they are slaves to superstition
http://chatpilot-godisamyth.blogspot.com/
http://chatpilot-godisamyth.blogspot.com/
