How far will you take the literal view of Genesis 1-11?

[Terry_Sampson]

@St.Roymond

I can’t make my thoughts conform to such “what ifs”.

• Given the nature of this thread, it isn’t important. But … perhaps you’ve given this thread too much thought and exhausted your imagination?

@St.Roymond

Mosaic authorship of the core of the Torah is not unreasonable

• Your opinion inspired me to google “Mosaic authorship” just to see if there was something in the term that would make me better informed. Much to my pleasure, I discovered that there is: there’s a pretty clear parallel between a person’s belief in “Mosaic authorship” of the Torah and a person’s belief in “Mohammad’s authorship” of the Qur’an.
• Briefly, … extremely briefly, IMO, Mosaic authorship, I’m told:
  • “is the Judeo-Christian tradition that the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible were dictated by God to Moses.” [Source: Wikipedia introduction to the topic: Mosaic authorship.]
  • Obviously, at least to me, Mohammad’s authorship of the Qur’an had to be as divine as Moses’ authorship of the Torah and Jesus’ authorship of the Gospel. Also, I note, according to the Qur’an, the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur’an were all “books” that Allah, Yahweh, and God “gave” Mohammad, Moses, and Jesus. Each religion claims divine authority for its text, in Islam’s opinion, in more or less the same way. Rejecting or denying that divine origin is equivalent to rejecting or denying the relevant Scripture’s authority; Fighting words to “the Ultra-orthodox of each religion”. At that point, argument is useless.
• To be clear though, IMO, what is up for discussion in this thread is whether or not Genesis 1-11 was divinely revealed to Moses when he was between 80 and 120 years old. Anyone who does not agree is, bluntly, an unbeliever, and might want to run for cover.

@St.Roymond

I don’t think the original writer or the original audience would have had any idea of what we meant by “literal” in the first place!

• Now I’m jealous. Ha! Where’d you get your post-High School education?
• Do you realize that the OP’s author, a lay British Nonconformist has already declared elsewhere, that:

@RichardG

There are stories suitable for bed time reading in the bible, and much that is less suitable.
Perhaps you do not know the bible as well as you think you do.
Also, perhaps, talking serpents and magical trees would constitute a fairy-like land?
I would be reluctant to call it real (but that might upset some)

• So, a lay, Nonconformist Nonbeliever-in-Mosaic-authorship opens a thread to challenge anybody and everybody who thinks God revealed the words of Genesis 1-11 to Moses personally, and you want to quibble with me over my question?