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But to interpret all these biblical stories literally, runs us into trouble.
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The trouble lies in not being able to discern metaphor and other figures of speech (similes, synecdoches, etc.) from the literal. To believe that the Bible is all literal or all non-literal is to be devoid of any reason at all.
I'm sure that the Bible uses every trope known to man. It should not be expected that very many people would ever understand scripture. In fact, according to scripture, it can only be spiritually discerned by those whom God has given to know.
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I will also say, God walking in a garden with Adam and Eve is a Sumerian story that was translated by Hebrews and should not be taken literally. It is not a concrete fact that a God walked in a Garden with magical trees with Adam and Eve, and a talking snake and cherubs are as real as talking hens, foxes and fairies.
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You are wrong to say so, however. You falsely surmise because the "magical trees" and the "talking snake" are metaphors that Adam and Eve and God and the Devil and the Garden are not real. You're not really qualified to say what is and isn't real. You only have your very uninformed opinion, no matter who wise you think yourself.
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Realistically, at no time in history did humans have a special contact with God and angels that we do not have today.
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A very unqualified statement. Exactly how have you existed throughout history?
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Religion however, holds people to a past that doesn't work in the present, unless the holy books are understood abstractly and we appreciate the human effort in all of them.
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Wrong again...very wrong, indeed.
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Because that would make it all true. Nothing can be true without full evidence of the truth itself, and when this evidence arises, everyone usually excepts it. Like when Magellan sailed around the world, proving to people the Earth was round. No one, who was anywhere near objective in opinion, denied that the Earth was round after this event.
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Well, then, your post is ALL non-true since some of it is non-true. FYI, Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276 BC - 194 BC) calculated the circumference of Earth around 240 BC. Of course, for more than 6,000 years most people knew the earth was round. It has always been just the ignorant, superstitious masses that have believed otherwise.