Quote:
Originally Posted by FreeFromBrains
An interested observer. This site is a hoot. To think there are people who really believe the Bible literally beggars belief.
|
And how does one believe the Bible, if not literally?
There are some ways, of course, but all of them are proven wrong.
One way is to take it metaphorically. As if all God could do is to write obscure metaphors, free for interpretation. What a cruel God would be, the one writing in metaphors and at the same time creating brains not suited to read metaphors. Like Asperger's for example. Or yours, by the way.
In this way, anyone can do as he pleases, only referring to the Bible as a footnote for a made-up belief. "I think you can use mixed fabrics, so that is a metaphor in the Bible". Effeminates won't enter into Heaven, says the Bible, but that is only a metaphor. I can be an effeminate and then, when denied access, organize a pride parade in the Gates of Heaven and they will surely let me in; that is what we are teaching people in modern times.
So why would God bother to write a metaphorical book, if it will not be applied, or it will be read in many different ways through many different eyes? It has no sense, is like the Government writing laws about taxes in a metaphorical way. "Ok, it says 5% of the net income, but is only a metaphor on how a modern man feels about the relationship with their neighbors, and how social media has affected our real interactions". No, it is not, and that is why not paying taxes requieres a high level of IQ and only very smart people can get away with paying those taxes.
But there is an even more perverted way of reading the Bible: the cherry picking, where you only read the parts you like, and the rest are "metaphors". So God loves everyone and only hates Esau in a metaphorical way.
The problem here is who decides what is real and what is metaphor. Either any person can decide it, which will be crazy (again, the law should be one for all, not each one having his own law; it just does not work) or there is an authority that decides. The Catholic Church has decided to become such authority, for example. They decide what is real and what is not in the Bible. It is called heresy, even when they were the ones accused of heresy.
The Bible itself says this is the way of Satan:
Deuteronomy 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
You cannot add explanations to the Bible, it doesn't need oracle interpreters to be read. It is what it is, literally. It approves slavery, sex traffic, killing of infants, rapes, and many more things people nowadays think of being morally incorrect. And it disapproves homosexuality and other personal choices regarded as "normal" in our society.
Those are no metaphors: either we support God by supporting the Bible or we get rid of this religion altogether, dismissing it as a fiction written by bronze age men to scare their neighbors and their own into discipline.
I am for God supporting. Otherwise, you are being fooled by Satan. Send my regards to Pope John Paul II when you see him where you are going after dying.