Interpretation of Texts (General)

by dhw, Saturday, September 25, 2010, 08:11 (4981 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

BALANCE_MAINTAINED: To my knowledge I have not said, or even insinuated that I think that all the dialog stated between man and the bible were true, nor did I disagree with your statement that they were written by men.-Nor did I say that you said it. You have been discussing the Flood and the parting of the Red Sea, and have argued that "historical records have proved nearly all the mundane occurrences listed in the bible [...] are proving to be at least possible." All I'm trying to point out is that even if such events took place historically, they provide no evidence of God's existence (or Noah's for that matter), any more than discovering the historical site of Troy provides evidence for the existence of Homer's gods and goddesses. You have never responded to this point, so I don't know if you agree or not.-Thank you for the detailed defence you have offered for what I regard as the bigoted, barbaric laws laid down in Deuteronomy. I must confess I find Paul's arguments difficult to follow, though the gist seems to be that if you have faith in Jesus you needn't bother about the Law, which wouldn't exactly have helped those unfortunate stoned sons and raped virgins BC. Your own arguments are beautifully clear, and provide an excellent explanation, though not ... in my view ... a justification or an answer as to who decides, according to what criteria, whether or not these laws, supposedly given by God, can be disobeyed. (Nowadays not even orthodox Jews stone drunken sons to death.) Since you quote Paul, let me switch my complaints to the NT. The history of Christianity is littered with appalling offences against humankind, and the Catholic Church's bigotry continues to extend the suffering ... all based on interpretation of the scriptures. The vicious, destructive fundamentalism that led to the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition has now passed to Islam, again arising from interpretation of the Koran. I get the impression ... perhaps this is wrong, but we have only just met! ... that for you the Bible provides the solutions, whereas I'm suggesting to you that the Bible and the Koran are the source of many of the problems. Do you agree? -Again, though, I need to stress that I'm not anti-religious, and I'm not closing my eyes to all the wisdom and beauty of these books ... they are great works of literature. But I am anti the bigotry and suffering caused by certain religious communities with their slavish devotion to texts that lend themselves to fostering the worst as well as the best sides of human nature.