(June 2, 2021 at 6:05 am)Belacqua Wrote:(June 2, 2021 at 5:48 am)johndoe122931 Wrote: That is a whole topic within itself that may be more appropriate on another thread.
I'm guilty of bringing that up, at the risk of derailing the thread.
My original point was that many of the atheists here reject the Bible because they think Christians have to believe in talking snakes, etc. They are very much unaware of how hermeneutics work. As Terry Eagleton says, they "buy their atheism on the cheap," by describing a simplified caricature of Christianity, and pretending that's all there is. It's frustrating because it's ignorant.
But I'll drop it now. No more responses on that topic from me.
Of course Christians don't have to believe in talking snakes, but a lot of them do. Even the ones who don't believe things just as fantastical - the Flood, feeding the multitudes, walking on water, healing touch, and so on. Christianity could not survive without a firm belief in miracles, which is why there will always be a subset of Christians who spend a great deal of time and energy trying to come up with mechanisms for these things.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
