Reply #39: Where's the sense of allegory? [View All]

[Beartracks]

Exactly how long is a day when the sun doesn't exist yet? The truth may certainly be that God created the universe, the Earth, and us.... but that truth does NOT necessarily extend to the "facts" of the "story" that is used to explain His involvement.

Reminds me of a shirt I've seen:
"God works in mysterious ways. He does not need you to beat me over the head with Him." (http://www.cafepress.com/tulsatees/1756693)

It does a rather a big disservice to God to presume that just because WE don't understand, say, how the universe was formed, that God must have made it happen by magically snapping his fingers. Give the Guy some credit. Does it REALLY diminish His involvement to acknowledge that the complex processes of physics and biology are how He chose to create everything?

Why are so many Christians hung up on the so-called literal truth (i.e. the human-written, several-times-translated words) of the Bible? I don't remember any 11th Commandment instructing God's followers to believe in a 6-day creation... That's really rather unimportant to whether or not you are living a good Christian life. And how come dinosaurs weren't mention in Genesis...? And how would any boat with all those big thunder lizards -- built to the exacting specifications described in the Book -- float? Was it like Snoopy's doghouse: bigger on the inside?

I always thought of "God's Word" as the universal truths of right vs. wrong, love your neighbor as yourself, etc. -- you know, the tenets of good living, of a life that is worthy in the eyes of God or whatever higher power you may or may not acknowledge. It is contained in the lessons we learn from the Bible and other sacred texts. God's Word as such is in the *meaning* of the stories of the Bible, and some of these stories may have a historical basis, many of them are philosophical in nature, and some of them are simply allegorical. The actual "words" contained within the Bible were provided by humans over many centuries; they are not actually "God's words." Pay attention to what the stories MEAN, not what they SAY. Ask yourself, "What is it I'm supposed to learn from this story?" God deserves greater respect than to presume that the Bible is just a history book that people are supposed to memorize. He blessed us with intelligence and reason -- let's use them.