I don’t paraglide but I get the same sense when flying my drone even though I am restricted to 400ft agl. Awesome videos. That is really neat.
Wrong! They are actually reading what was written because using it to bring forth your own ideas is what that means. It is how the human mind works – what psychologists have proven about the process of human perception. We use our own beliefs to attach meaning to the data our senses give to us. So, it what people are doing even when they pretend the they know what the author meant. I am just not buying into the rhetoric and excuses people use to claim that their ideas are any better than those of another person.
But I think it should be clear by now that I am not opposed to observations that the words don’t necessarily mean to the author what those words mean to us today (like in the whole “earth” discussion). Or to put it another way… I am also not claiming those who use scholarship to understand the scriptures is any less correct than those don’t. I am not automatically rejecting their ideas or dismissing their opinion. But neither am I accepting that they have any authority to dictate its meaning either.
Your responses were logical and valuable. Thank you. I don’t think inerrancy is unimportant or arguing over something that cannot be solved like Phlogiston. For me, it was in the clinical encounter which brought the Bible’s truth home. Up to that point I thought much of the Bible was a mixture of history and distortion, of myths and allegory. I had several experiences which revealed an uncomfortable truth.
The Catholic church understands that many cases of supposed possession or oppression are really psychiatric disorders instead. So rarely when a case ascends the church hierarchy to the point where the bishop or priest and clergy think an exorcism is indicated, a psychiatrist must examine the patient. I was asked by a colleague, a full professor of Psychiatry at a medical university, if I would help out and do one. The lengthy evaluation could not reveal any clear-cut psychiatric diagnosis and so the answer to the question was, ‘no psychiatric disorder adequately explains what is happening in this case’. I felt that I had done a good deed. That night my house caught fire. As hook and ladders hovered over my roof I wondered if this was just a coincidence.
This and a few other experiences and some reading left me with the belief that there really is a devil. If you’ve never read Peck’s book, “People of the Lie: towards an understanding of human evil” and his final book, “Glimpses of the Devil” you should You may like many believe these are fairy tales. I used to. Not any more. And for me, this seemed the weakest link in the chain of Biblical stories. Surely a myth as many priest friends have told me.
I think this is one reason for having greater trust in the Bible. It is telling us about a great war that we are engaged in. CS Lewis writes about this war. Many attempts have been made to discredit the Bible, burn it, outlaw it or denigrate or argue with those who uphold its integrity. If it’s right about this…
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The trouble with this statement is that it assumes we know the level of understanding the Bible requires. If Biblical study has discovered anything it is that there are layers upon layers of understanding. Many of the New Testament writers rewrite the interpretations of the Old Testament even down to Jesus Himself adopting prophecies that were originally aimed at Ancient Israel. So to claim that the Bible is under attack is sometimes dependent on which interpretation you are clinging to
Scripture is deemed finite inasmuch as it cannot be added to, but are modern theologians and holy people any more or less inciteful than Paul or John? Some people cling to Paul as if he was God himself and his words inerrant. And to question him becomes an attack on scripture itself. I am pretty sure that Paul is turning in his grave over some of the outrageous theology drawn from his carefully worded letters that have been misquoted and misused.
Richard
I think Paul would agree with this statement:
1 Cor 1: 21For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 22For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
That one statement can, and has been, understood in so many different ways
Was Christ crucified…
- For the Jews
- Only for those who beleive
- For all Sins
- For sins that have been repented
- For anyone who sins (sinned)
- For the whole world
- To cancel judgement of sin
- To replace pennance or animal sacrifice
And there are probably more out there
Each one produces a different theology and viewpoint
Would anyone dare to claim which is the right one?
(I hope not, but there are some here who are so sure of themselves and their theology…)
Richard
Mitchellmckain is right. We are not obligated to read a text in any particular way. When Caneday said this I got ready for more nonsense, and there was plenty. The text is an artifact and a bit of communication. The receiver chooses how to read it. If we want to understand more about what it says we may find it useful to ask what the author intended, but that is our choice. In the case of scripture, it does indeed seem useful to ask what the authors, the visible and the invisible one, intended. Genesis 1 is written in a straight forward manner, like someone relating things that have happened. Gen 2-3 is written entirely differently. It reads like a strange fairy tale, but one about God and his relation with his creatures. Very interesting, but not a history. I think it makes sense to read these two texts in very different ways.
The only serious difficulty with Genesis 1 is the length of days. But for those of us who have accepted Einstein’s understanding of time and its stretchiness, this is less of a problem. No two clocks can be synchronous unless they are touching each other. Time passes in one place at a different rate from the rate it passes in another place. So how long is 24 hours? Depends on where you are.
The difficulties in Gen 2-3 are marvelous, full of so much meaning. No wonder it has been kept close to us for so long. Talking snakes? Trees whose fruit is knowledge? We’re clearly not in Kansas anymore.
- Lines from Netflix’s “The Pope’s Exorcist”:
- “Trauma such as you described can be a gateway for the devil. Suffering can make a soul desperate for connection. It can make the innocent more vulnerable.”
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Watching those made me really miss my skydiving days.
It only appears that way in translation. The text is a masterpiece, managing to be/use two different literary types at the same time while also being a polemic against the gods of Egypt and indeed the rest of the fertile crescent.
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Every story has to have a beginning. Genesis is that beginning. Since it was edited in its final form, in Babylon, it does not seem unreasonable to believe that there was an influence of the existing cultural understanding of how evil entered God’s perfect creation. Today’s Christians should not be surprised that the account does not comport with our present understanding of evolution as the way God chose to bring humankind into existence. However, I find it very interesting that the tempter in the story is a reptile since we now know that at the base of our brains we share a structure with reptiles that controls basic survival instincts and activities. In Genesis the reptile is exterior. What evolution teaches us is that the reptile is interior.
The word can also be translated as “shining one”, which would be a reference to a heavenly being.
I don’t believe that God is a prankster.
Huh?
Keep in mind that back then an angel – which includes Lucifer – and even pagan gods would have counted as heavenly beings.
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