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Author Topic:   Is the creation/evolution debate taboo in our churches?
Perdition
Member (Idle past 3263 days)
Posts: 1593
From: Wisconsin
Joined: 05-15-2003


Message 51 of 51 (531717)
10-19-2009 1:21 PM
Reply to: Message 48 by Arphy
10-19-2009 6:21 AM


"Historical" writings
My main point here was not if the information is accurate or not, but about the way that information is presented. Genesis presents itself as a historical narrative as do many news-stories irrespective of their accuracy.
But so does the vast amount of fictional writing, all myths, all creation stories, etc. It's the way we tell stories. Using the voice of the authro doesn't do anything to indicate whether the story is supposed to be considered "true" or not, nor does it help us suss out what the author and intended audience got out of reading it versus what we get out of it now.
A good example is Lord of the Rings. JRR Tolkien came up with an entire creation story, complete with battles between heavenly hosts, good/evil, heroes and demons, etc. He came up with races and languages and back stories so complex and detailed and interwoven with each other, it seems all but impossible to believe he's just making it up. It's told in a historical way, detialing who, what, when, where, why, and often, how. It has been interpreted many times since it was written. First, it was interpreted as an attack on the wars of Tolkien's experience (World War One). It was trotted out again during World War Two as anathema to Nazism and fascism. The hippies embraced it as an attack on conformity and promoting civil rights and freedoms. More recently, it has been touted as an ecological book, attacking the destruction of the natural world and deforrestation.
The point is, the stories were written a bed-time stories for his children and because of a bet between Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. (Narnia came out of that bet as well.) What other statements Tolkien wanted to make are mostly lost to history or his family. People have written theses, books, and entire curricula on it, and most of them disagree. In less than a century, we have many, amny interpretations, all of them supposedly saying exactly what the people of the time wanted it to say. If the book were not intentionally marketed and sold as fiction, it would be very easy to see people accepting it as actual religion, in fact, some still do. If we were to come back in 2,000 years, how many interpretations and ideas would you expect to find...all from one story, written in a "historical" mode.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 48 by Arphy, posted 10-19-2009 6:21 AM Arphy has not replied

  
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