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Quote by: CliveStaples You have come upon a very important Biblical truth: it's written to be understood by the people reading it. The Bible isn't a science textbook. It isn't here to explain the physics of the Universe, or the specifics of biomechanical processes. It is meant to reveal God. |
If one claims that every word of the Bible is true, and the Bible makes statements about the nature of the world, then it needs to have some foundation in fact. If the Bible is meant as poetry and not literal fact, then just say so. Otherwise I'm unclear how the true nature of an omniscient, omnipotent God is revealed by people who didn't understand the basic physics of day and night.
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Quote by: CliveStaples Even presuming that your presumption is correct (which I do not believe--the ubiquity of "flat-earth" theory has been largely overstated, imo), so what? What does the supposed ignorance regarding astronomy have to do with the truth of the Bible? Please don't make a "but the sun doesn't actually rise" argument... |
It reveals that the chronicles that make up the Bible anthology were interpretations of "God's Truth" based on the sensibilities of the bronze age cultures into which the authors were born, and the convened clergy at the Council of Nicea that cherry-picked selected scriptures for the New Testament in 323 AD.
For instance, do you find the institution of slavery to be moral? Because the Bible is very clear... slavery is perfectly acceptable, because at the time it was written, slavery was a vital, necessary and completely acceptable part of every civilized economy of the day.
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Quote by: CliveStaples Well, the meaning of "day" can depend on the context, can't it? After all, when someone says "Back in my day", you don't think that they're referring to an actual 24-hour (or single-solar-rotation-of-the-Earth) period, do you? |
Genesis is very clear.
"5 And God called the light, Day. And He called the darkness, Night. And there was evening, and there was morning the first day." "18 and to rule over the day and over the night; and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good."
Now if you're suggesting that this is a parable for something, I'd love to hear it.
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Quote by: CliveStaples Until and unless Christianity is proven false--or any one of its logical antitheses proven true--you have no grounds to impeach the Christian faith as irrational or incoherent. |
It is when Christian faith irrationally instructs us to ignore the reality of nature as determined by modern science in preference for a reality of nature as determined by writers who didn't understand the physics of day and night. Beyond that, I have no problem whatsoever with Christianity, right up to the point that Isherwood alluded to...
"Many of us here have read your bible. Just because we don't accept it as anything more than a historical text does not make us ignorant."
And it certainly doesn't make us 'wicked'. If Christianity is intent on contantly informing my fellow citizens that I am evil and immoral by definition - which is false - for no other reason than I don't believe what they do, and that I should be treated as a second class citizen of my own country, then I have a very real and personal reason to impeach the Christian faith as irrational.
"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you,". (Matthew 7:12)
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