Squaring circles: direct biblical contradictions

Hi Apothecus! Modern fundamentalist misconceptions derive from a failure to understand the esoteric concepts of literality and inspiration.When we say that the Bible is to be interpreted literally, we mean first that a straightforward reading must prevail over later interpretations. That doesn't mean that it isn't full of parables, allegories, metaphors, hyperboles, and other forms of idiom; but rather, that those things are what they are. They are not exclusively what some further later exegesis makes them out to be. This is the principle of peshat.But secondly and more importantly, it means these are the words, no substitutions, no changes, no subtractions, no additions. A good translation, like the Authorized Version of the Christian text or the Biblia Hebraica of the Jewish, makes clear which words necessary for grammatical translation are not found in the original using italics or square brackets, in keeping with this principle.Inspiration is even more misleading, what it means is that the text is poetry. This is true even where it appears to us to be prose, it is still designed to follow specific rhythms and tones. This is one part of why it is so important not to mess with the words, different words have different scansion. Both the Hebrew and the Greek orthodox texts have musical notation attached to them, known as cantillation and neumes.Misinterpreting these concepts provides a steady paycheck for people unable to do honest work like burglary or the practice of law.

Yes, with a minor quibble about the word "anyone". When correctly interpreting poetry, the term "inspiration" relates to the extent to which a given poem or body of work reflects much larger aspects of the world and our experience of it than the mere details of the poem would entail. A divinely inspired work is one which uses characterization of transcendent beings to give us important messages about ourselves.But further, understanding that the Bible is poetry all through allows us to recognize the huge depth of metaphor involved. Each passage means much more than it appears to on first glance. For example, the creation hymn at the beginning of Genesis is a reworking of prior "Songs of Moses" found in Psalms 148 and as used by David in 103. These Psalms tell us that all that out there, everything there is, is in our immediate reach when mediated by our idea of transcendent mind. Genesis 1 goes further though; in response to the Babylonian planetary model, which attributes specific aspects of creation to specific gods honored on seven weekdays, it asserts that there is ONE being who creates all those godforms or labels and controls our own experience of the whole world, every week, all night and all day long. I've never met a "real" fundamentalist who understood anything except the most superficial aspects of the nature of poetry. They will tell you in one breath that those days of the week in Genesis must be actual 24-hour days and in the next they will say that the days of the week in Daniel have to be years; and then when you ask them why this "literal" Jesus hasn't showed up yet, they will point at Peter where it says a day is a thousand years. They don't seem to be able to grasp the idea that the Bible isn't a science text or a historical chronicle, or a law-book made for them to find loopholes in either. Because it takes away their slave-morality prerogative to interfere with other people's mental activity. As long as they have one book that beats all the rest of human knowledge, given sufficient thumping, they can feel superior to people who go to the trouble of actually getting a good education. As long as they are sure that God agrees with them against the people who mock and abuse them, they can be counted on to be good slaves who are easy to manipulate.Let me just ask this. If the Bible is "literally true" in the more simplistic sense, what's the purpose of those multiple-family paychecks that go out on the grounds that you need someone to interpret it for you? Why do people keep coming round thumping down paraphrases like the NIV and claiming they are "literally true" when they aren't even literal? Answer: it's just a buzzword for them, they are working the old fool/money disengagement process. Tell people what they want to hear, and agree with them while they nod their heads, and they will pick their own pocket for you.

I'm glad you managed to reference this one before the fight-or-flight thing got you. Let's go ahead and look at this passage in context to get a good understanding of what it is saying. You have refused to believe the clear and awesome story that the real creation is telling to scientists who devote their lives to understanding its wonders. You do not have the excuse of prior generations and cultures, where literacy was rare and education was hard to come by. It requires a genuine effort of will to dismiss all the evidence that the universe has to offer. You take real satisfaction in this vain exercise of the power of your mind, and as a result, though you have been exposed to the concept of what God really must be, you have denied it in your heart and set your will upon an imaginary deity which you can understand and imagine. By doing this, you have reduced the splendor of God to a mere filthy creature like yourself. This allows you to distract yourself from the plain teaching which requires you not to be contentious, to resist not evil, to be wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove, with the pretense that the part that is really important is your interpretation of obvious parables and "just so" stories. This unspeakable hubris has led you to enter into detestable disputations with your betters, each an expert in their field. The inevitable result is that you have made many obvious errors and embarassed yourself. The consequence of this is that your audience are now much less likely to consider any argument which might lead them to a better relationship with the God you claim to be honoring. You have totally failed to follow the plain commandment to give up your idolatry, and taken your mental pictures of a young earth, a first-century preacher, and a very slanted, censored version of a book that in reality condemns you, to create a false god who tells you what you want to hear. As a result, God has given up on you and left you to your own devices. Without the real power of the spirit, you have been forced to derive your substitute for real transcendent experiences from repressed sexual energy, filling your imagination with abominable misconceptions regarding your fellow humans. This is why the fundamentalist colleges are full of confused and angry transgender types.

Here's a real Bible contradiction, one that serves as a teaching tool: Do you understand this lesson? The man Jesus is happy with here is a Roman centurion, a pagan; but he understands obedience: God likes this attitude a lot better than he does the sort that glorifies in its own interpretation: Do you get that? Not just damnation, greater damnation. Yes, there are many contradictions in the Bible. But they are certainly not errors. Serious as a heart attack ...Edited by Iblis, : where their worm dieth not and their fire is not quenched