It perplexes me as to why alot of Christians inisist on taking the creation story in Genesis as literal, and deride and condemn the opinions of those who try to look a bit further and actually understand it in the context of when it was written. Many religions have stories which are not meant to be literal but are a way of trying to explain things in terms people of the time, without the science and knowledge of the world around us we have now, could understand. If a 6 year old came to you and asked you what quantum particles were how would you explain them? Would you sit down and start going into complex detail about quanta, entanglement and the structure of particles? No…you would describe it in simplistic terms that the child could maybe understand. And then they would only just barely have some idea what quantum particles were. They would not have a true picture in their mind because they don’t have the necessary understanding and knowledge to fully comprehend them.
So why don’t alot Christians take a similar approach to the creation story. Why is it not possible that creation as described in Genesis is a way to try to explain to people of the time in simplistic terms how life was created. Even now, with all our scientific advancement since then, there is so much about the world around us, seen and unseen, that we do not understand. Even that which we think we do may be proven in time to be incorrect in some way. And we have limits on what we can understand and comprehend.
I think maybe, these Christians are afraid of the idea of the Bible not being literal here, for if it isn’t, then what else is open to question? They need to hang on to something. But questioning, and trying to truly understand what is written need not cause their belief system to come crashing down. Only through exploration can we find truth. We may not always like what we find.
Hi! I am Scope. Saw you posted in the Forum.
Anyway, I am also quite new… in a way.
Maybe you should ask those people in the forum more Ping Sites other than the usual ones to ping, like Pingomatic is one of the standard ping sites.
It helps making your blog known, and maybe you’d see traffic.
It’s fun to watch the stats. Hahahaha…
Your first post is thought provoking. I must admit, though, that it troubles me. The question I’d like you to consider is this: If Genesis is not to be taken literally just as it was written, why should John or Romans be taken literally? Why are we not to understand the story of Jesus of Nazareth as just a “simplistic explanation” to us humans who do not know very much? How can I trust what God has said concerning my eternal life by believing in His Son’s cross-work if I cannot trust His account of how all things came into being? You see, once you open the door of doubting parts of what God has written in His Word, then you allow the possibility for questioning and denying all that He has written. It may seem too simplistic to simply believe the Bible, but that is what God requires: faith–belief. We do not know very much at all, but God knows all things. Who should we trust? Why not trust the only One who knows the Big Picture? So what if some “scientists” claim that the world was made by some ulterior method than that described in Genesis. Do they really know? Is science perfect? Is it possible that their understanding of the things they observe is just incomplete? I appreciate your thoughts, but I earnestly hope that you don’t doubt God’s Word so easily. Our eternal destiny hangs on the validity of what God has said in His Word.
Thank you very much Austen for your comment. I think the important thing is to not be afraid to question. I am not saying that God did not create what we see around us – I just question the interpretations of some Christians as to how this happened, especially those who reject current ideas of evolution and what we know about the formation of planets and life. They hold the two as mutually exculsive.
As for ‘faith-belief’, I don’t believe, from what I have read that Christ ever said you must accept without queston:
See Luke11:9, and if you are interested in other writings,
the Gospel of Thomas says Jesus said “He who seeks, let him not cease seeking until he finds”. There is nothing wrong with questioning what is written – remember, these words were written down by ‘men’, and as such must be examined. It doesn’t mean Jesus did not have a message for us. If you are a Christian, isn’t that what you should be focusing on?
You are right. There is no fear in questioning. There is no blind acceptance. When the disciples questioned whether Jesus was actually risen, He did not tell them to just believe and accept by faith. He told them to objectively examine Him by their senses of touch and sight (Lk. 24.39).
I simply wanted to encourage you in the matter of our trust in Scripture. The Scriptures are the very Word of God—exactly what He wished to communicate to us in every single minute detail (II Tim. 3.16; II Peter 1.21). God told Jeremiah that EVERY SINGLE WORD that He spoke to him was to be told to Israel (Jeremiah 26.2). Thus, the Scriptures are exactly how God intended them to be to the very word. Such is the significance of the original languages—to communicate minutiae that is so detailed that it can be relied on even to the very tense of the Greek or Hebrew verb. My point that I hope you’ll consider is this: God has given us a Book which communicates His message to us, but He has given it to us exactly how He wished to give it. It was recorded by men, but it is the very words of God as the Spirit of God directed them to write. There doesn’t need to be a wrestling with it to determine the meaning behind the words. The God of Scripture is a rational, personal God who communicates to us just as we communicate to each other. There is no need to go beyond the literal interpretation of the Text. By doing that, it places a man in charge of determining what God meant, rather than allowing God to speak for Himself.
My hope is that I have encouraged you even slightly that Scripture is sufficient by itself. We need not to try and reinterpret what God said over and over again throughout Scripture—that He created the world in six literal 24 hour days, that there was an Adam and an Eve, that they committed sin and plunged humanity into sin, and He destroyed the world with a Flood. The Bible is God’s very Word, whether we believe what He said or not. It is our privilege to believe it willingly.
Blessings on you.
Thanks very much Austen for taking the time to read my thoughts and comment. It is always welcomed.
I think you contradict yourself – on the one hand you say there is no blind acceptance, but then you go on to say we should do just that with Scripture ( oh, by the way, it does not say in the bible that a day was 24 hours in the Bible. There is debate on what a day for God would be to us). And you fail to grasp my point that we cannot ignore the fact that no matter what we may believe God said to these men, it is the men who wrote it down. Now, are you really telling me that you believe humans are infallible? They have no biases, individual perceptions, different ways of understanding etc. etc. They are not capable of making mistakes? Interpreting things incorrectly? What if the knowledge received was not fully comprehended and understood by them, and so what they wrote was maybe a little ‘off’ from the truth?
I am not saying by that therefore this proves everything that was written down was wrong. There may be essences of truth. I am saying we must seek the truth ourselves, with the brain that you as a Christian would say God gave us. Why give us reasoning powers, the ability to question, think, analyze, debate, discuss, if we were not meant to do so?
Why did Jesus talk in parables? Why didn’t he say everything plainly to those who came to listen? We must seek and try to really understand, not just blindly follow – for if you do, do you have real understanding and comprehension in your heart and mind? If you truly understand then you truly accept, precisely because you understand and comprehend.
You may like to read my other post “The Bible – The writings of Men” which asks questions related to this topic. Just some more food for thought….:)
What a big topic. I think that we use are using a misnomer when we talk of taking things ‘literally’. To be literal doesn’t necessarily mean that we should believe everything that is written is factual. It means we must understand literary tools like metaphor, allegory, simile and so on.
Far from taking away from the Bible’s veracity this way of reading scripture will actually underscore the truth that runs throughout.
God is too big to be nailed down. Genesis is not necessarily a factual account of creation but it most definitely is a truthful account in how it tells us that all things good come from God and when we choose ourselves over him we become mired in sin.
The parables are great examples- when asked direct questions Jesus did not resort to formulas or systems in his explanation – instead he would say. “Well, it’s like this….or perhaps it is like this…..” This would imply that there must be some latitude allowed for the understanding of “those who have ears”.
Nice site – clean and easy to navigate, in both the blog home & comment section, and you have some interesting topics as well.
As far as why Christians take the Bible literal, Im not sure there is space for me to go into that, but I will say that they could perhaps learn from the Jews, and one in particular, Jesus.
See, in Judaism, Bereshit (Genesis, the creation story) is seen as a parable. It is by no means taken literal, and there are tons of writings explaining the meanings behind the creation story. (I have studied from both chassidic and Sephardic Orthodox rabbis.)
The idea is that knowledge is passed on in ‘levels’. Its called P.R.D.S. (pardes, or paradise) in Judaism.
For a Christian, you could call Pshat, the first level, the parable level.
And seeing that Jesus spoke in parables, this should help lend credence to the Jewish view of Genesis. I only say this as many Christians tend to ’show’ they know more than those from whom the religion originated.
When you think about this, its kind of ironic, as modern evangelical Christianity is pretty far away from it (though, ironically enough, the charismatic movement has some interesting parallels to Judaic Kabbalah – unbeknownst to the followers of that denomination.)
My point is though, that Catholicism shares some traditions that parallel with Judaism, that Christianity calls heresy. One example would be that of purgatory – Judaism doesnt call it the same, but there are some striking similarities.
It has been said that Paul is the founder of Christianity, but if his writings were seen from a Jewish perspective, it would perhaps be more on the charismatic twist. I say this carefully, because in the same time, they dont really see the parallels, or understand it themselves, so its kind of ‘perverted’ from its true intent.
I will wrap it up here by saying that for the most part, the Bible is misunderstood science. If you get past all the allegories and study modern science (quantum mechanics) you will find that the Bible is, more or less, a quantum physics guide for the fisherman. – In other words, it was put together for those who would not be able to grasp more difficult concepts.
I mean, imagine Jesus trying to explain the makings of the universe to his fisherman…they had quite a problem understanding and implementing basic teachings, let alone things that were not yet integrated into their milieu.
And that really is the point. The level of ‘consciousness’ of ones milieu. Today we are lucky that knowledge and technology are growing at the rate it is. While it may scare some, it is a tool – and to me, a quite welcome one.
With that I will end, This feels like a blog in and of itself.
Peace
Dalen
Hey this Idetrorce chap is a spam bot -some type of blog trojan horse popping up everywhere. He got me too. Delete him pronto
Sounds to me like Evangelines has determined in her heart a long times ago what she wants to believe and she now is just goibg about trying to justify it by interpreting Scriture and everything else she experiences, to accommodate her way of thinking. No one is going to change her heart or mind. She is set in her beliefs and seems to enjoy rambling on saying the same old thing .
Empty vessels make a lot of noise.
Hi, Evangeline. I just ran across your blog today – coincidentally the same day that I “got into it” in a Bible study group with some folks who argue for the literal (not literary) interpretation of all Biblical texts. I feel your pain.
The trouble isn’t that some folks choose to believe in a literal interpretation, but rather that they insist that everyone believe as they do. (There are fundamentalists on both sides of this argument, of course.)
In short, I agree with you while respecting other folks’ rights to believe as they wish. As long as we all procede in faith, we’ll all have our theologies corrected by God in a face-to-face meeting.
Blessings,
Robaigh
P.S. I tried to go to Dalen’s site, but couldn’t get there. Too bad. I liked what Dalen had to say about “Quantum Physics for Fishermen.”
II Timothy 2:24-26: “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will “