Posted: Oct 11, 2010 1:20 pm
quas wrote:But this is so counter-intuitive. If people hold greater reverence on the truth of mankind (scientists, mathematicians, etc) over the the veracity of their religious texts vis-a-vis their God, why be religious in the first place?
It's not "greater reverence". It is simply not to take the Bible literally. You have bought into the whole Fundamentalist mind-set that literal interpretation is the "pure" one, and anything else is a watering down of faith. Isn't that what your argument is? If so, can you explain why that should be the case? Why can't an allegorical approach be the "pure" one, and literalism a watering down of faith?
Here is Origen again:
- "...it is very easy for any one who pleases to gather out of Holy Scripture what is recorded indeed as having been done, but what nevertheless cannot be believed as having reasonably and appropriately occurred according to the historical account. The same style of Scriptural narrative occurs abundantly in the Gospels, as when the devil is said to have placed Jesus on a lofty mountain, that he might show Him from thence all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. How could it literally come to pass, either that Jesus should be led up by the devil into a high mountain, or that the latter should show him all the kingdoms of the world, i.e. the kingdoms of the Persians, and Scythians, and Indians? ... And many other instances similar to this will be found in the Gospels by any one who will read with much attention, and will observe that in those narratives which appear to be literally recorded, there are inserted and interwoven things which cannot be admitted historically, but which may be admitted in a spiritual signification."
quas wrote:If they are ready to allow scientific discovery to supersede their faiths, then why have faith?
Supersede their faiths in what respect? Give me a scientific discovery from the last fifty years -- and science has advanced more in the last fifty years than at any similar time before -- which has resulted in a "superseding of faith".
quas wrote:Supposing that one day they find evidence that Christianity is totally untrue, say, Jesus never existed at all, would they stop believing? I think we all know too well the answer to that question.
Yes, so do I. Many will. Some won't.