I’m pleased you noticed my absence. Somehow I got “un-friended” and had to sign in again.
Eddie, I truly respect and admire your scholarly approach to interpreting the Old Testament. My skeptical nature results in a different view often, but I don’t claim it is closer to the ‘Truth’. I see many of the miracles recounted in the OT as support the Jewish claim to be "God’s Chosen People’, but I do not see them as any support for Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God. As for the miraculous parting of the Red Sea, the drowning of a large Egyptian army, the liberation of the Jews from centuries of oppression and slavery–it is odd that none of this is recounted in any history except the Jewish. And their claim to have been inhumanly oppressed is hardly supported by their complaint to Moses that they missed ‘sitting around the meatpots in Egypt eating all they wanted’. And is it likely that the Egyptians would allow ‘abject slaves’ to leave the country with all the gold that they later fashioned into a golden calf?
Adding to my skepticism about the actual ‘parting of the Red Sea’ is the previous account (Ex 4-7) of Aaron’s rod turning into a snake. Belief in this sort or magic was acceptable in those days, but now it can preclude belief in the entire story it was meant to support. It is not that God could not perform such miracles, but the god who would want to does not impress me favorably.**
Al Leo
What question of mine are you answering?
Don’t worry, it’s still coming. I just meant I had nothing else to say about Russell. I was hoping some discussion might continue on Chris Knight’s post this week. But we still have a few weeks to go on this. Hold me to it.
I agree with most of your response, Eddie, but I don’t believe I have made my position clear. Many ‘happenings’ that go against unreasonable odds but do not 'break any of nature’s laws can reasonably be referred to as miracles. While these may constitute the majority of miracles reported, God can intervene, because He is the one maintaining the laws in the first place. But He does so only rarely. As far as I am concerned, the only one essential ‘intervential miracle’ is Jesus resurrection from the dead. As I see it, (as do the New Atheists) virtually all the miracles recounted in the OT may NOT be God intervening but are merely exaggerated oral accounts that were written as Jewish history to support the claim that they are Chosen People. Granted, at that point in time they possessed the clearest conception of what God expected of His creation, and Christians should be grateful that our Savior could come into this world and become a part of such a spiritually-rich culture.
But even the best of ideas can be over-applied. Is not the Jewish claim to being a ‘chosen people’ not one of these? Could it be that this claim, maintained for thousands of years, be partly the basis for the deep enmity between the Israeli and Palestine peoples? Is the biblical history of Sodom and Gamorrah and of Lot founding the Moabite people through incest with his daughters (Gen 19:37-38) not a factor? Religion as an aid to one’s personal salvation may be above reproach, but when it becomes tribal and stands in the way of peoples joining together as a human family, it may actually become counterproductive. Not all claims made by the New Atheists are rubbish. Perhaps we Christians can learn something from our adversaries.
Al Leo
That was exactly my problem, Eddie, when I was an instructor for the adult Confirmation classes in our parish. We handed out the latest Catholic catechisms that stated that Adam & Eve were literally our first parents and their sin of disobedience was the Original Sin passed down to each of us. It was clear to everyone involved that I was chosen as a ‘presenter’ to theses classes because I had made a career in science and still was a practicing Catholic. But it was also clear that I could not, in good conscience, concur with the catechism’s dogma regarding Original Sin. So I quit. I am confident that my liberal brand of Catholicism suits me best, but I have doubts that it would necessarily help these younger adults (mostly Hispanic) lead better lives.
Al Leo
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