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God's Existence (Page 3)
Dan responded:
"If science says that the story couldn't be literal, then the evidence says to me that I shouldn't believe the story is literal. Therefore I don't believe the story is literal. Is my doing so really that illogical? Many people have interpreted Genesis 1 as allegory for reasons having nothing to do with science."
Science doesn't tell you to change the interpretation; you're doing that all on your own. Science only says that the story of Genesis is highly inaccurate. Science would simply discard the story and say the Bible got it wrong. Instead, you turn it figurative for no other reason than to maintain your faith. Give me evidence that early ancient Jews took the story figuratively (and don't act like Jews living around Jesus' time were "ancient"). There was every reason for ancient Jews to understand this story as the literal story of creation, and the person who wrote it gave no scriptural evidence that it was to be taken figuratively. Science says this story was meant to be taken literally, and that you (and others) have turned in figurative to hide the errors in the stories and contradictions with science. Give me legitimate reasons why this story should be taken figuratively; historical and scriptural reasons. Both are required in order to make your case.
Dan 8/21/09
I responded:
"Science doesn't tell you to change the interpretation; you're doing that all on your own. Science only says that the story of Genesis is highly inaccurate."
It also says that the stories of Br'er Rabbit are highly inaccurate, since science shows us that rabbits and bears don't speak a common language. But that doesn't mean that science says that we should "discard" those stories, but we are to take them as allegorical, which is exactly what they are.
"Science would simply discard the story and say the Bible got it wrong. Instead, you turn it figurative for no other reason than to maintain your faith."
It's got to be something. If it's not non-fiction, then it's fiction. Allegories are fictional stories with underlying significance, usually of a religious, social or moral nature, which the Genesis stories clearly have. Do you even disagree that the Genesis stories are fictional and have such significance, and therefore are allegory?
"Give me evidence that early ancient Jews took the story figuratively (and don't act like Jews living around Jesus' time were "ancient")."
Jewish philosopher and scholar Steven T. Katz says, "In Jewish religious thought Genesis is not regarded as meant for a literal reading, and Jewish tradition has not usually read it so." Source: http://www.myjewishlearning.com/beliefs/Issues/Science/Creationism_and_Evolution/Bible_as_Allegory.shtml
"Science says this story was meant to be taken literally,"
How does science say this? Does science also say that the stories of Br'er Rabbit were meant to be taken literally? If not, then in what way does science conclude that Genesis was meant to be taken as literal and the Br'er Rabbit stories were meant to be taken as allegory? What methods does science use for determining the genre of a certain writing?
"Give me legitimate reasons why this story should be taken figuratively; historical and scriptural reasons. Both are required in order to make your case."
I'm not sure how to do that. Can you give me an example, showing how one could use historical and scriptural reasons to conclude that the Br'er Rabbit stories should be taken figuratively (remember, you need to use both)? If you give me an example of how to do this using the Br'er Rabbit stories, I'm pretty sure I can use the same methods to do it for Genesis.
David 8/22/09