Poetics, humanities, and life

[Mervin_Bitikofer]

A catchy quote from your O’Connor quotation page:

“Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. There’s many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”

― Flannery O’Connor

I had to forward that one (among others) to our literature teacher. Not exactly poster material for the classroom wall, though.

[Terry_Sampson]

@Mervin_Bitikofer

Please expand on that if you don’t mind

I’ll try, but I have a hunch that I’m going to bungle the job.

• Let A = an Atheist and M = me, an aging Christian curmudgeon.
• A discussion of the place of the Fall in evolution, between A and M, is about as exciting as the “Is The Fall compatible with evolution?” thread.
• A Biologos forum search for “The Fall and Evolution” yields: The Fall & Evolution 100+ results. My cursory review of that list fails to confirm that there is a “huge ‘agreement-fest’” that is taking place, or that has taken place in Biologos. So either there really hasn’t been one yet, or I need help finding it.
• Even in my own thread: “Dating the Fall: A conjecture”, my “alternative” interpretation of the Genesis account, i.e.

@Terry_Sampson

In the alternative, of course, Genesis may not be about when humans began to wear clothing, but about why humans began to wear clothing in the first place, in a place where nakedness was not physically uncomfortable. In that case, is it possible that the Genesis account of Adam and Eve’s actions is not about a change in humanity’s relationship to God, but about a change in the way humans viewed themselves: i.e. an 'evolutionary change" from being amoral animals to being moral animals?

failed to get more than one like and two replies. Hardly a “love-fest”, IMO.

[Mervin_Bitikofer]

@Terry_Sampson

…turning an opportunity to actually dialogue into talking past each other, somewhat like an exchange between atheists and Christians over evolution theory and Genesis events.

You lost me there. Please expand on that if you don’t mind.

It seemed to me that if the exchange could be faulted for anything, it would be for being a huge “agreement-fest” - the kind absolutely loved by all the conflict avoiders like me.

[MarkD (A Whateverist, not a Christian)]

I think that happens most often when both parties think the truth and reality are simple and obvious. For the rest of us there can be real conversation.