Nickolaus

Amos, the claim that Noah's Ark is just a parable sounds somewhat ridiculous to me. I could say the same about absolutely anything, and make up all kinds of interesting "facts" and correlations. That's the kind of exercise that conspiracy theorists thrive on.

Beware the three named assassin!

The holocaust was a parable!

copernicus

This tactic of claiming that the Bible contains allegorical accounts is absolutely necessary in order to prevent religious claims from collapsing under the weight of absurdity. You can't prove an allegory or analogy to be wrong. It is merely a symbolic story that represents something other than the literal truth. Hence, biblical accounts, no matter how silly or incorrect by today's standard or literal interpretation, can be promulgated with a straight face. The problem is that history contains centuries of records that show people took these "allegorical" accounts as literal truth. Indeed, Christians have murdered, tortured, banished, incarcerated, and otherwise persecuted people who dared to oppose the literal interpretations of such "allegories". We now arrive at a sophisticated era in which we can interpret these biblical stories in their true light--not as literal truths, but symbolic stories intended to convey some hidden truth. Naturally, it is those millions of past believers in the literal interpretation who were wrong. The modern era finally has it right. What willfully blind nonsense. You can give the old myths any interpretation you want, just don't admit that they are sadly mistaken myths. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

Amos

To what purpose? may I ask. So you might believe?

Amos

"Just" a parable denies the reality of the parable and the holocaust was real only because this truth was, and is still not, perceived by Christians and atheists alike.

Amos

Thanks, you provided a good argument for literary censorship and that the bible should not be read by believers. This, instead of freedom of religion, should be in every Constitution and so the modern era is still wrong.

My argument is that we should not read the Gospel of others until we can write our own. If we do, we will go wrong first as individuals and collectively as a nation.

Amos

[ December 11, 2001: Message edited by: Amos ]</p>

emc2

No. Simply to understand. I try to seperate fact from fiction (I.E., what really happened vs. what was thought to have happened (or simply made up)). I simply want to seperate the true history from the make-belief. Surely that isn't so hard to understand.

Since it is obvious that you or any other believer will not address my question about the Ark, then I will provide you with an example of my train of thought. Jonah and the whale. This is another story that I believe is a compilation of fact and fiction. Sure, we hear one guy's side of the story; but here is an alternate theory. Say old Jonah was so bummed out about the way things were in his life that he got himself nearly drunk and went out on a boat to commit suicide. After a few days contemplating his fate, he decided not to do so and tried to get back to shore. On his return trip, he tipped his boat over and had to swim back to shore. Embarrassed, he made up this elaborate story to explain to them. Now, this is all speculation because it is not based on any facts, however, neither is the story in the Bible. It is just one man's account of what he said happened. You or I were not there, so neither of us can say what truly happened because we have no facts to support our beliefs (albeit, my explanation of this account makes much more sense).

On the other hand, there are people, places, and events in the Bible that are historically accurate. So there is some realism. I am not "trying to find God," but rather to better understand history, along with religious influence on history.

I realize that you will respond to the above Jonah Analogy as another parable (or should I say fable), so please save your fingers if that is the best you have to offer.

BTW- my question still remains unanswered.
<img src="graemlins/boohoo.gif" border="0" alt="[Boo Hoo]" />

Marc Nolan

A friend of mine pointed this out to me but I will use it here:

Why would god flood the entire world, shuffle animals from all over the world from kangaroos to polar bears, have noah build an ark and float around for forty days while the entire world was destroyed when all the man had to do was snap his fingers and boom... just noah and his kids. thats it.

It doesnt make sense. But let me guess christians, we are not to comprehend the work of god or why he does aparently what he does.

Mageth

Welcome Marc Nolan!

Well, ya see, God is a sadistic SOB. He wanted those bastards to SUFFER for a while.

Amos

But there is no scientific fact in the Bible and if anything the local setting and time is used to confuse the reader who is searching for truth. The mythmakers who wrote the bible were not idiots and much smarter than we can comprehend.

The story of Jonah is exactly the same as the story of Joseph the carpenter and of Noah the ark builder. If that is not your conclusion you are a confused reader.

Since you do not want my explanation of Jonah I will give you the next best thing.

Jonah was placed East of Eden from where he went West because we cannot go East from East of Eden. Jonah was fleeing to the end of his world because the end of our world is where heaven begins. On a paid fare (not guilty) while yet he felt guilty while asleep for the turmoil around him. He left his royal kingdom and traveled to Bethlehem where he got swallowed up by the great whale in the nether world of the stable and while asleep under a Bothi tree the Christ child was born. He send out a pigeon to see if the coast was clear and fled into Egypt to find dry land where he preached to Ninevah for the conversion of Judiasm.

I actually never read the Noah story so I don't really know what he did afterwards. All I know is that he found dry land and abandonned his ark because some guys are looking for it.

Amos

MrDarwin

Plus God wanted to drown all those animals. They had all been so so very bad.

Seriously, though, this is an excellent point that I've never seen made before. I'll be sure to remember this one!