The Most Dangerous Book
A reader says his friend says: "If I find one contradiction in the Bible, I will abandon my faith."
Why does contradiction require the abandonment of faith? The power of religion derives largely from people's capacity to explore aspects of consciousness that are contradictory, mystical, metaphorical, paradoxical, and non-Aristotelian. Many people, including those with rigorous minds, are eager to embrace this aspect of their lives. Perhaps in a sense it brings wholeness and comfort to their lives.
So-called "contradictions" in the Bible can be explained by expanding on the context and by accepting that vast portions of the Bible are poetry not news print.
Let's say you have two verses in the Bible, which I will invent to make the point.
Verse one. "Ten people were in the room."
Verse two. "Twenty people were in the room."
Is there a contradiction? Not necesserily, depending on how you contextualize the two verses. Verse one might be a subset of the cohort described in verse two. Verse or or two might be transciptionist errors-- one might be true or they both may be false. Finally, and less trivially, the pastor or rabbi might suggest that the number of people so denoted was irrelevant in context to the thrust of the story. It is the confusion with the concept of "myth"-- denoting not a falsehood, as in "it is a myth that my uncle is a millionare" but in a fable that tries to make a greater point and thus is true for all time, such as the myth of the Three Little Pigs.
The Bible is the most dangerous book in existence, because it is filled with dangerous ideas-- allowing each reader to interpret those ideas as they wish. This was the intuition that informed the church's resistence to allow people to read the Bible, something that did not change until John Wycliffe in 1382 completed his translation directly from the Vulgate into vernacular English.
You got it there.
People who believe don't do so logically, they believe. Therefore the said friend is simply deluding himself in the false assertion unto himself that he is being logical, whereas he is not in reality. Contradiction doesn't require the abandonment of faith, but in that case no statement should be made about the cogency of that faith, and if it is indeed interpreted like a poetry or a myth, then I earnestly think that all bible-believers should stop making appeals to it for earthly matters. How would it feel if there were a cult who insisted that we should try to measure our lives with coffee spoons, or wear our trousers rolled? It'd be delusional. Completely delusional.
By the way, it is imperative in Islam to wear the trousers in such a way that it doesn't reach lower than one's ankles... but that's another matter :)
Why does contradiction require the abandonment of faith? The power of religion derives largely from people's capacity to explore aspects of consciousness that are contradictory, mystical, metaphorical, paradoxical, and non-Aristotelian. Many people, including those with rigorous minds, are eager to embrace this aspect of their lives. Perhaps in a sense it brings wholeness and comfort to their lives.
So-called "contradictions" in the Bible can be explained by expanding on the context and by accepting that vast portions of the Bible are poetry not news print.
Let's say you have two verses in the Bible, which I will invent to make the point.
Verse one. "Ten people were in the room."
Verse two. "Twenty people were in the room."
Is there a contradiction? Not necesserily, depending on how you contextualize the two verses. Verse one might be a subset of the cohort described in verse two. Verse or or two might be transciptionist errors-- one might be true or they both may be false. Finally, and less trivially, the pastor or rabbi might suggest that the number of people so denoted was irrelevant in context to the thrust of the story. It is the confusion with the concept of "myth"-- denoting not a falsehood, as in "it is a myth that my uncle is a millionare" but in a fable that tries to make a greater point and thus is true for all time, such as the myth of the Three Little Pigs.
The Bible is the most dangerous book in existence, because it is filled with dangerous ideas-- allowing each reader to interpret those ideas as they wish. This was the intuition that informed the church's resistence to allow people to read the Bible, something that did not change until John Wycliffe in 1382 completed his translation directly from the Vulgate into vernacular English.
You got it there.
People who believe don't do so logically, they believe. Therefore the said friend is simply deluding himself in the false assertion unto himself that he is being logical, whereas he is not in reality. Contradiction doesn't require the abandonment of faith, but in that case no statement should be made about the cogency of that faith, and if it is indeed interpreted like a poetry or a myth, then I earnestly think that all bible-believers should stop making appeals to it for earthly matters. How would it feel if there were a cult who insisted that we should try to measure our lives with coffee spoons, or wear our trousers rolled? It'd be delusional. Completely delusional.
By the way, it is imperative in Islam to wear the trousers in such a way that it doesn't reach lower than one's ankles... but that's another matter :)
Labels: Bible
posted by My Mall and News at
10:15 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home