figuer

Are you for real??? You think that the Bible shouldn't be called mythology because it offends the sensibility of believers??? What a child!!!

Chris Weimer

Apparently, figuer has a hard time distinguishing between fact and unsupported assertion, and between the American government, the American populace, and America.

Let's see if figuer's logic holds up:

The Bible has some poetry in it. Is the Bible poetry?

The Bible has some genealogies in it. Is the Bible a genealogy?

figuer has fingernails. Is figuer a fingernail?

Apparently, absurdity knows no bounds.

figuer

The previous post seems to demonstrate that Weimer's arguments have effectively collapsed.

aa5874

Your premises do not resolve anything. The issue is classification of the Bible. The Bible is essentially about a mythical God who created the world, his chosen people, and who sent his mythical Son to die for our sins and that he is coming back again for his followers.

The Bible is interspersed with anecdotes, poems, songs, psalms, laws and doctrines in relationship to this mythical god, his mythical son, his chosen people and believers.
All this is fundamental myth and therefore can cause a person to classify the Bible as mythology.

Books written as non-fiction have been re-classified as fiction, not because the entire book is fictitious, but because fundamental parts of the book have been found to be fictional.

Toto

Since you are dragging me into this - yes I deny a direct link to creationism. Creationists did not invent quote mining or spin doctoring or insufficient logic.

But if you want logic, how about this:

P.1 A significant part of the Bible is mythological.

P.2 Therefore it is not worth abusing someone who calls the Bible mythological instead of a compendium of mythology, poetry, prophecy, etc.

IvanJames

I don't know if figuer is or is not a fingernail, but he certainly has made a compelling case that "mythology" is a useful umbrella term for the above. The poetry, geneaology, myths, histories, and legends are all compiled to make a compelling case for the worship of yaweh. Thus, we might popularly define said collection as a "mythology".

There seems to be a fundamental communication problem here. Just as the word "theory" has different meanings in science and in everyday life, perhaps the word "mythology" does too?

aa5874

His arguments do not collapse, he has none.

figuer

That is the origin of the debate, but its continuity is due to sheer denial of facts (for no apparent reason).

Consider the following definitions of myth (posted in the first page of this thread):

• A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the world view of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society:

• Stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use the supernatural to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity.

The Bible, as a whole, clearly corresponds to these definitions. It deals with a series of supernatural beings, ancestor, and heroes. It serves as the foundation of a world view of a people. It explains aspects of the natural world, delineates the psychology customs, and ideals of a society, using the supernatural. Every book in the Bible partakes in at least some aspect of these definitions. All, in variable degree, contribute to the formation of a world view centred on a mythical entity, god, or help in the delineation of the customs and ideals of a people. In top of that, the Bible is a mythical entity, the word of god himself. Thus the Bible has a mythological function, for it not only preserves and exposes the various aspects of the mythological system, but is itself, as an object, a component of that system.

No Robots

The Bible certainly does have mythic elements, but it does not co-ordinate these into a mythology, a comprehensive "life of the gods". Myths in the Bible serve a purely lyrical and humanist function, a means to penetrate to the spiritual truth of man in relation to the absolute:

The Greek gods are beautiful figures, interestingly drawn, but this does not impart an ultimate seriousness to them. The Nordic gods, too, lack high seriousness; they by contrast, are hardly drawn at all, spectral natural forms, vague and monstrous. Here, on the other hand, we have a Jahve who is by no means mythical, in conjunction with the most human of men, Christ: a combination which is infinitely attractive and of ineffably profound significance to the human spirit. Indeed, this is a literature of great miracle and power: let a passage be quoted, even in the context of some lofty artistic creation, and it resounds like thunder above the music.—Brunner, Our Christ, p. 307-8

figuer

This is most evidently incorrect.

The following are the basic points that articulate the plot of the Bible:

0. A supernatural entity, God, exists (myth);
1. He creates the World in six days (myth);
2. He creates a man from dust and a woman from a rib (myth);
3. He punishes humans by destroying the world through a flood (myth);
4. He creates languages magically (myth);
5. He choses a people and establishes a pact with them (myth);
6. Later rescues this people from slavery by sending plagues to punish their captors (myth);
7. He gives them "the promised land", which they invade (myth);
8. He appoints judges who display supernatural abilities (myth);
9. He appoints kings (myth);
10. He speaks to prophets giving them supernatural powers ordering to transmit his words (myth);
11. He announces through his prophets the coming of a Messiah (myth);
12. He impregnates a virgin and is born himself in the form of a man from this virgin (myth);
13. While in human form he performs miracles (myth);
14. He chooses a select few as his disciples (myth);
15. He is sacrificed yet rises from the dead (myth);
16. This sacrifice cleanses the sins of those who believe in him (myth);
17. He ascends to heaven (myth);
18. He descends as the Holy Spirit (myth);
19. But he remains in Heaven as Father and Son at the same time (myth);
20. His disciples perform miracles on Earth (myth);
21. All the while there have been Angels and Demons roaming the Earth (myth);
22. His prophet announces his coming, the defeat of the demons, the resurrection of the dead, the eternal condemnation of the evil to Hell and the good to Heaven in everlasting bliss (myths).

As observed, the Bible is as a whole a co-ordinated mythological system. Indeed, Judeo-Christian mythology is perhaps the best organised and cohesive mythological system, because of the precise way that it delineates the sacred history of the world, from its beginning to its prophesied end. Compared to this, Greek mythology looks uncoordinated and incomplete.