quote:
Originally posted by Tranquility Base:
^I don't think we're going to drop the Bible becasue of a few undotted is and uncrossed ts Joe. There are very few issues in which I find Biblical ambiguities to cause insurmountable problems.
But if there ARE ambiguities, that means BY DEFINITION that
different people interpret the Bible in different ways.
That being the case, even if the words are divinely inspired,
the interpretation is fallable, because man is fallable.
You cannot, surely, claim literal truth in something you have already
stated as containing ambiguity which requires interpretation.
Holding up the King James Bible as THE bible is a little odd too,
considering it is viewed historically as a POLITICALLY motivated
edit of the bible.
The bible is an ancient text, and does not have the Koran's rigour
when it comes to copying. Much of the bible has been translated
from several different languages, and the ultimate origin was
probably in a verbal tradition that extended far into the
past.
Chinese whispers springs to mind ... especially because translation
requires interpretation, and you have already stated that
the Bible contains ambiguities. This means that the translator
has to impose their own understanding of the text in order to
make a meaningful translation ... information is lost.
Suppose that the story of Noah occurred 10,000 years ago (just bear
with me), and what actually happened was that Noah anticipated
that his village would be flooded, but no one beleived him.
He builds himself boat, big enough for his family and the animals
he wants to keep from his farm and sits waiting for the flood.
Much ridicule ensues.
Then there's a flood!!! And Noah survives with his livestock while
others die out.
Now consider this story told by the survivors, or by Noah's sons.
They may elaborate ... as people do nowadays when telling about
important events. And the story gets passed down ... and the root
of Noah's premonition gets elaborated into the divine because
no one can understand how he knew. And the size of the boat
gets bigger, and the scale of the catastrophy gets bigger.
And so on ... for generations, until it is eventually written down.
What we see in evidence is that there have at various times in
earth history been local (sometimes immense) flooding. We still
see this today.
What we do not see, is a stratum dating to 6000 years ago that
can be found EVERYWHERE on earth.
Given the stated materials of the ark we can see that a large
barge could be built, but not one large enough to contain all
of the animals required to repopulate the earth.
Two of each kind is NOT a sufficient population to regenerate ...
ask an ecologist or conservationist. and that doesn't
really depend on an exact definition of kind either.
Also .... all men on the planet should have the exact same
y chromosome ... Noah's.
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