Posted by:
BYU Boner
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Date: October 12, 2016 07:08PM
Perhaps for many of you it is. However, you'll struggle with many great works of literature if you don't have some ideas of its stories and teachings.
The American Founders such as a Jefferson and Franklin were deists and not members of any specific Christian church or theological movement. Adams was Unitarian. Washington was a nominal Episcopalian. Only Alexander Hamilton was actively involved in a faith community (he was also the most aggressive toward ending slavery). Franklin is better known as an abolitionist, but he actually owned two house slaves whom he took to France. They escaped, and to his credit, Franklin did not pursue them.
I do not feel that the United States, from its very inception, was conceived as a Christian nation. The Founders, in their wisdom, determined that a republic would be the best (although imperfect) form of government. I'm irked when certain Christians claim that the US government is or was, Christian. Governments are civil structures "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Just as certain Christian groups have tried to hijack the government, so to the Bible. For many other Christians, myself included, the Bible is record of ancient peoples as they have experienced God. To me, the Bible represents truths that are bound, in many cases, to the time and culture of the authors and is best read and understood in those contexts.
The Hebrew Scriptures were probably written during and after the Babylon Captivity. These writing reflect concerns for the necessity of a written record of Hebrew mythological beginnings, laws, and culture. Although, it is fashionable for some to ridicule the Hebrew Scriptures, modern peoples should realize that these sacred writings enable Jewish identity and survival through centuries of violence and persecution. Both religious and secular Jews are "Children of the Book."
The Christian New Testament has never been claimed by its authors as being written by God. The Book of Acts states that the sacred writings were "God-Breathed" into the hearts of the writers. Biblical scholars often theorize that Mark and Matthew were proceeded by an earlier gospel book (Q-German-- quelle--source). The writer of Luke probably relied on passages of Matthew. John's Gospel was, for a long time, thought to have been written 110-120 CE, until an almost complete text showed up from c. 90 CE.
The author of Ephesians probably was not Paul as textual analysis reveals many new words not used by Paul in authentic written and very different syntactical structures.
Knowledge of the above helps me read the Bible as myth, metaphor, and as a sacred record of others. To me, Biblical literalism may destroy the very message that the text is teaching.
For example, modern people know that the Earth is many billions of years old. We know that evolutionary biological science has enabled humankind to understand heredity, disease, and alleviate a lot of pain and death. Yet, a literal reading of Genesis is that the Earth was created in six days, the first humans were named Adam and Eve, they ate some fruit, got kicked out of the Garden of Eden, had kids, and those kids married other people whom the Bible neglects to explain how or where they were created. Biblical readers also know that Creation in Genesis Chapter 2 differs as to its specifics from Genesis 1. Biblical scholars have used literary analysis to differentiate different transcribers whose work got intermingled.
To me, reading the Creation, and the Adam and Eve myth literally causes one to lose what the point of those stories are. For example, Adam and Eve eating fruit from the tree of good and evil suggests to me that humankind's intellectual knowledge will always supersede our spiritual knowledge. The Creation story informs me that my existence and my life are purposeful, and that I do not see humankind as a skin rash on planet earth that is best wiped out for the sake of our planet and the flora and fauna that face extermination under humankind.
Is there a God? I don't know, but I believe there is. My wonderful insightful friend, Hie, says there's no scientific evidence that there is a God. He may, in fact, be right. And, no matter how much I believe in something, believe alone does not make existence. This I know, I may not be correct, but I know that I believe in God.
I recently listened to 48 half hour lectures (thanks Teaching Company!) on "Big History" taught by a professor from San Diego State. He made it a point of stating many time that the Big Bang and what happened afterward did not need a supernatural God to explain astrophysics, chemistry, life, etc. what he could not, however, explain was where the densely condensed mass of matter came from. This mass, about the size of a tennis ball contained all the existent matter of the universe. Then, something remarkable happened--a rapid expansion so fast and furious, we don't even have expressions for it, so we call it, the Big Bang. But it wasn't really a bang, it was a massive expansion highly elegant. In nano seconds, the heavier elements were created through gravity and heat...
The Hebrew story for this is "And God said, let there be light..."
I love you folks! The apologist's Boner.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2016 07:19PM by BYU Boner.