🚀 go-pugleaf

BuddyThunder wrote:
> Antares 531 wrote:
>> On Mon, 07 Jul 2008 08:59:50 +1200, BuddyThunder
>> <nospam@paradise.net.nz> wrote:
>>
>>> rbwinn wrote:
>>>> On Jul 6, 12:57 am, BuddyThunder <nos...@paradise.net.nz> wrote:
>>>>> rbwinn wrote:
>> (snip)
>>> The Bible was very accurately transcribed - for humans. They did an 
>>> amazing job. Not a perfect job, there are lots of differences between 
>>> the early versions we have, but not bad for a bunch of people.
>>>
>>> It's the content that I find even less reliable though, that's what I 
>>> was driving at, and I think you know that.
>>>
>>> Much reported as history in the Bible simply never happened. No 
>>> global flood, no special creation, no exodus...
>>>
>> Few of those Biblical stories are to be taken literally. Most are
>> allegory, parable, simile, etc., sometimes based upon an existing
>> legend. The purpose was to make it possible for a mostly illiterate
>> people to get the embedded meaning, retain the story, and pass it on
>> from generation to generation with little drift.
>>
>> The flood was probably based upon the ancient stories about the
>> flooding of the Mediterranean basin shortly after the last ice age
>> ended. The Strait of Gibraltar was breached as the Atlantic ocean
>> level raised. When this happened the whole Mediterranean basin was
>> flooded in a very short time...like 40 days and 40 nights. The relics
>> of those stone walls and buildings that were out in what is now the
>> Mediterranean are still available for divers to see.
>>
>> The main point I'm making is that we should not get hung up on the
>> literary form used in the Bible. We can read it and interpret it just
>> as effectively as those ancient people could. Neither of us has an
>> advantage over the other.   Gordon
> 
> They can't sensibly be taken literally, as they apparently never 
> happened. I think you're right, these things were sometimes adapted from 
> existing legend, which all points to a concerted human authorship effort 
> rather than divine origins.
> 
> The Bible presents these things as if they happened. Jesus was clear 
> when he was speaking in parables, why couldn't the OT be similarly 
> up-front? I'm unconvinced that we're meant to disbelieve in the story of 
> Noah. Why would the dimensions of the ark be given if it was a parable?
> 
> Anyway, where do you draw the line between literal truth and "symbolic 
> allegory", or falsified story?
> 

Variably and carefully?


> How do I know which bits really happened and which bits are fancy? If I 
> can't depend on all of it, how can I depend on any of it?

Well, by independent verification. Ocne you dethrone the Bible from The 
One True Book, to just A Very Old Book, and realise that largely the OT 
was in fact not written down for many many centuries of oral 
tradition..then all becomes much easier.

Was there a Great Flood? It would seem likely that there have been more 
than one. Did Noah exist? probably. Did he get instructions from God as 
to how to build an ark and stock it with the world's animal population? 
of course not. That's a typical bit of religious propaganda added in 
much later.

Consider, "In the days of Bush, there came a great retribution by the 
hand of the Almighty, and he smote down the twin towers of the latter 
day Sodom and Gomorrah, with two great birds of mighty pinions, and 
rained fire and destruction down upon the glodless and profane, in the 
city of Sin, dedicated to Mammon, known also as Newyorksittee: And the 
people cried out, some saying that this was the work of the New Satan, 
or Osamabinladen, whilst others cried that it was the Emperor Bush 
himself who had caused this, in order to raise more taxes  and throw 
down fire on his enemies. But the righteous rejoiced, for this confusion 
was foretold in the prophecies of Allah, and  only the righteous were 
left with manna from heaven (which they called Oyl) in the Holy lands, 
and so the destruction of the great Empire of the West began, and the 
righteous and devout in the Holy lands triumphed over all."


(The Gospel according to Muhmmamed Bin Wankin, written in 2050 after the 
Fall of the West).


History is written by the winners, and those with paper left to write it 
upon.