Liberal / non-literal intepretation of bible impossible...
Liberal / non-literal intepretation of bible impossible... for a real christian.
Jesus believes that moses and adam were real people, therefore god believes it... and christianity stands or falls by the ressurection of the REAL christ (i.e. he had to actually exist). Therefore anyone who is not a biblical literalist is not really christian by the bibles standards.
It has become fashionable, under various learned sanctions, to question the authenticity of these books, while admitting the possible genuineness of the remaining portions of the Sacred Record. Without attempting to discuss the question, we may remark that it is impossible to reconcile this attitude with allegiance to Christ. You cannot reject Moses while accepting Christ. Christ endorsed the writings of Moses. He said to the Jews by the mouth of Abraham in parable: "They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead" (Luke xvi, 29, 31). It is also recorded that when he appeared incognito to two of his disciples after his resurrection, "beginning at MOSES and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke xxiv, 27). Further, he said, "Had ye believed MOSES, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But IF YE BELIEVE NOT HIS WRITINGS, HOW SHALL YE BELIEVE MY WORDS?" (John v, 46, 47). If Christ was divine, this sanction of the Pentateuch by him settles the question; if the Pentateuch is a fiction, Christ was a deceiver, whether consciously or otherwise. There is no middle ground. Moses and Christ stand or fall together.
interpreting direct contradictions
which appear in the Bible then?
Cognitive dissonance. As long as you don't step back and look at the big picture, such things present no problem. If someone points them out to you, though, it can mess up your worldview pretty badly.
nominalist
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Well, I am not a Christian, "real" or otherwise, so perhaps I should not be commenting on this subject. Nonetheless, I will do so.
I am uncertain what you mean by a "non-literal interpretation of the bible." A literal interpretation is simply a reference to reading the text (as opposed to reading one's own views into it). If a text is symbolic or poetic, then reading it as historical would be "non-literal." (The reverse would be true as well.)
Cheers,
Mark
Well, I am not a Christian, "real" or otherwise, so perhaps I should not be commenting on this subject. Nonetheless, I will do so.
I am uncertain what you mean by a "non-literal interpretation of the bible." A literal interpretation is simply a reference to reading the text (as opposed to reading one's own views into it). If a text is symbolic or poetic, then reading it as historical would be "non-literal." (The reverse would be true as well.)
Cheers,
Mark
Yeah but being a christian is defined by the bible itself, it lays out what is and is not a christian. Christianity stands or falls by the resurrection, and christs real existence... so if christ was real, and believed adam and moses were real... that's a real problem for non-literalists. It's totally incongruent with labeling oneself "christian"
nominalist
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Well, not being a Christian, I won't put myself in the position of defining the movement for those who take the label. However, I would suggest that many religious liberals and radicals, myself included, are content with ambiguity. While I reject, in principle, the idea of perfect texts, that doesn't stop me from learning from the great thinkers of the past.
Cheers,
Mark
Well , I believe that shortly after the end of the last ice age ( sometime after 12,000 BC) some people ate something that they shouldn't have done , and " their eyes were opened, and they were as gods, knowing good and evil"; this doesn't actually make me a christian at the moment but it does lead me to believe that the jewish people may have been founded by some people discovering that they had certain similar ( genetically determined ) reactions to wheat which promoted increased abstract thought ,and that as a direct result of this capacity to see logical paths in all directions they suffered from an increased need for strict rules and regulations in their lives in order to feel secure.
I even think that they may have known they were eating forbidden fruit ,because previously the elders in the group may have been seen that children born to mothers who ate it had difficulties with usual social interaction ,and imposed a strict ban on it, enforced by a threat of being cast out from the group if broke it ,because the "trip" was so seductive , and the substance so addictive that many would otherwise not resist.
And so the jewish people was founded on that strange mixture of superiority and disability ( needing many elaborate rituals and protective regulations to function) which is so visible on here!!
And , as first significant association of ASD'ers ever , they wrote many records and lists of their trials and tribulations, with all the necessary ASD/OCD lists and details and repetitions which you would expect!!
As someone with aspergers I am quite happy with this literal reading of the Old Testament. Finding my ASD roots is turning out to be pretty exciting!!
nominalist
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When interpreting the bible people have a few options.
They can interpret it literally, throwing away any sort of scientific knowledge they may or may not have had.
They can interpret it as a bunch of metaphors and allegories, with less literal context, giving rise to numerous interpretations.
They can interpret it as a piece of moralistic fiction written thousands of years ago, and label themselves as non-Christian.
Besides, the Bible has been around for about two thousand years now. That is plenty of time for a bunch of Romans and Kings and Popes to manipulate the text to say whatever they want it to. Widespread reading skills didn't come about until several hundred years ago. 1500 years is more than enough time to twist the text to fit any sort of means or end.
To Nominalist,
Right, .... first just like to say that I've been posting some of the development of my beliefs on this subject, as they occurred to me , based on what I know as well as imaginative leaps!! , on the thread " Aspergers/autism, civilisation, primitivism , suspicions" started by Skyknight.
For me the very first fundamental bit of evidence is the effect that gluten in wheat ( and rye etc) has on me , and a fair number of other people in the world.
[ Documented. See sites such as
http://www.foodallergycure.com/food_all ... hure_2.htm for super reading list and lists of symptoms of food intolerances in general . My favourite books are still Dr. Richard Mackarness' " Not all in the Mind" ! and " Food allergy and intolerance. Your hidden enemies" by Theron G Randolph.] And I posted a fair amount about my own personal experiences of this on the thread " Gluten Free Diets" on the General Discussion board.
Secondly that many of the mental effects of observed cases of intolerance to gluten( and even the physical) either mimic remarkably(! !!) , or are the same as , aspergers and in some cases autistic spectrum disorder symptoms.[ Documented. As above and other sites]
Thirdly that gluten first came into existence as the result of a mutation in grass plants in what is known as the Fertile Crescent, or Irak/Iran/N.E. Turkey, just after the last ice age , around 13-12,000 BC. [Documented. Sites on net about evolution of cereals]
Nobody had ever consumed this protein molecule before. It is the largest protein molecule that we ever eat. [ Documented. Forget where, but it is a perfectly established fact of biochemistry!]
The capacity to deal with it safely, digest it appropriately, is genetically determined.( although there are theories suggesting that generalised yeast infection of body, repeated or untreated diarrheoas, and abuse of anti-biotics amongst other things, can also result in failure to cope safely with gluten.) Documented.
Very shortly ( within 2,000 years, which is nothing compared to the tens of thousands of years it took to develop arrow heads to perfection!) ) after this new plant appears the first settled agriculture and animal husbandry begins. Houses go from being round to rectanglar. And the first representations of abstract/fully made up deities( as opposed to animal spirit etc) are fashioned.[ Documented. Chauvin et al. And countless others, but I like him cos he attempts to explain agriculture by religion , and then religion by agriculture , without ever wondering whether the food being cultivated might have something to do with their simultaneous emergence ! !). ]
The writing invented in countries where people ate wheat ( and rye etc)involves two steps of abstraction, being based on the sounds of the spoken word for things, whereas the writing invented in countries where until recently no glutenous grains/cereals were consumed were and/or still are pictographic , that is based on things appearance. Where this has changed it has followed the introduction of wheat into the culture.
I'll post that for mo'. The rest is mixture of conjecture, drawing of inferences and some possibly over simplified similarities. Though there are plenty of other details which seem to fit I'll stop there on this post.
But it's an idea that interests me very much.
Last edited by ouinon on 07 Oct 2007, 4:18 pm, edited 6 times in total.
nominalist
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They are interesting ideas. However (my two cents worth), in order to be workable, one would need to break the framework down into small testable hypotheses (predictions) and examine them carefully one by one.
The difficulty I have with your proposal is that you have taken numerous propositions (all apparently untested) and connected them with one another. In effect, you have built a theoretical model, which is the end goal of scientific discovery, without having first supported the individual propositions or hypotheses.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts on it.
Cheers,
Mark
to be workable, one would need to break the framework down into small testable hypotheses (predictions) and examine them carefully one by one.
<<<< Which ones would you say need testing the most? I'd personally love to know whether a pregnant mother eating or not eating gluten during her pregnancy had any effect on her child's predisposition to ASD. >>>>
... numerous propositions (all apparently untested) .... a theoretical model, which is the end goal of scientific discovery, without having first supported the individual propositions or hypotheses.
<<<< Well ,all the details I listed above as "documented" I consider to have been sufficiently studied and corroborated to need no more testing , but I'm not sure if you do!!
The other parts of the theory are just that, theory, which I have no way of testing.
I am currently enjoying the new perspective on things that this idea gives me.It has already led to my reading and researching history that I had not previously studied.
I tend to think that's quite a good reason to hold a new idea !!It's a sign that it's already working !( is that what you meant by workable?) Especially when it's about something as fundamental and important as the development of religion , and about how to treat a piece of writing as rebarbative as the Old Testament, to see if I can understand it better,see it more clearly /directly , rather than through all the mists of expectations and habit and repeated interpretations .
nominalist
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I don't know. Most of what you wrote about is outside my area. I am a sociologist of religion (a college professor).
Can you provide references for each of your points (from actual research)?
I am using the term "theory" technically, which is very different from its more common usage. A theory is a careful explanation of supported research data. Theories are based on research. If not, they are speculations, not theories.
Some of the world's greatest scholars began their work with an intuition. However, in order for the intuition to be usable, it must be tested.
Cheers,
Mark