lpetrich

This site has some nice discussions of Biblical errancy. But I've come up with a theological "explanation" for it.

This errancy was divinely inspired by the Biblical God in order to indicate that much of the Bible ought to be interpreted allegorically instead of literally. Yes, it was deliberate.

mark9950

deception and fraud to me.

I think God should be put on trial for fraud like those enron execs,if it proven that Gods fraud was deliberate and not incompetance.

Pyrrho

If God wanted to do that, don't you think it would have been more sensible to say explicitly that the stories are to be taken allegorically instead of literally? In fact, is does just that in some places for certain stories, as when "parables" are told. And that is highly suggestive that the remainder is NOT to be taken metaphorically (or allegorically).

Basically, if the Bible were the word of a god, and if that god wanted people to take it all allegorically instead of literally, then that god showed great incompetence in conveying the message. So it must be a really stupid god.

Rushianbeing

Hey, isn't this exactly what Paul said? When he was faced with the need to tie the new Christianity he was proselytizing to the ancient established religion of Judaism in order to give Christianity some merit in the hearts of the people, he decided that God was speaking allegorically when speaking of Abraham's descendants-He didn't mean literal, physical bloodline relatives, he meant "spiritual" descendents. Then Paul asserted that Jesus was this "spiritual" descendent of Abraham-and thus Jesus was the Messiah, and the Christians could now claim ownership of thousands of years of Jewish scripture.

Pretty slick!!

CJD

May I suggest removing your collective heads out of your Western asses?

Rushianbeing

Aww, sounds like someone's upset....

BioBeing

The last thread I read was Omphalos and respect in E&C. Omphalos is yong earth creationism with "the appearance of old age". Its getting harder to distinguish God from Satan these days...

lpetrich

For what reason?

Biff the unclean

This errancy was divinely inspired by the Biblical God in order to indicate that much of the Bible ought to be interpreted allegorically instead of literally. Yes, it was deliberate.

I have to second Pyrrho on this. It makes God out to be an idiot. Allegory is only affective as a form of communication if it is recognized as being such. If it is not then the Allegorist is a poor communicator, and therefore imperfect. This imperfection in communication shows that the bible was just the work of some less than perfect guys and not a perfect God. The responsibility of being correctly understood is that of the person doing the communicating and not the audience. So you can't use the standard Christian claim of the rest of us being imperfect to cover this.
The "allegories" that come to mind that IMO best illustrate this are the ridiculous physical descriptions of the Earth and Space in Genesis. The most learned and sincere biblical scholars in the world, for thousands of years, did not recognize these physical descriptions as being allegory. Speaking of Copernicus, Martin Luther wrote: "People give ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon…This fool wishes to reverse the entire scheme of astrology; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, not the earth." John Calvin quoted the 93rd Psalm and then went on to ask: "Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?" When Giordano Bruno did further work on that which Copernicus and was able to demonstrate that a rotating, orbiting Earth was an unassailable fact the Roman Inquisition burned him at the stake.
As well versed in the bible as Calvin, Luther and the College of Cardinals were they did not see the "allegory." By their words and actions they sincerely demonstrated their understanding that it was not allegorical.
The bible does not "become allegorical" until it is shown to be dead wrong. Pretty pathetic attempt at a "save."
God is either an imperfect fool or he, himself, is only an allegory.

Rational BAC

Of course, the story is that Martin Luther also liked to fart at the devil. Thought he was accomplishing something or other that way.