Here's an article that could be posted in the Family & Parenting section too. It's about God as the parent of Adam and Eve, his teenage children. I haven't thought about where Jesus comes into this but then again, the story probably never anticipated the meaning later scripture gave to it.
It's a post hoc attempt to make ancient myth relevant to today. Don't get me wrong, there are some very good principles and lessons in that book, but they're so often overlooked and the verses about horrible punishment for sinners that get quoted.
true | tro͞o |
adjective
1 in accordance with fact or reality: a true story | of course it's true | that is not true of the people I am talking about.
How do any Bible stories accord with fact or reality?
It start off like this, you see. 13.8 billion years is actually the same as seven days. When Adam died, he had only 23 ribs. You get the idea.
So Rev. Spain thinks the Babble is a big collection of allegorical stories? Cool, I guess.
She only seems to talk about Adam and Eve and the Fall(tm). And wants to imply that since she can make a loose correlation between what she thinks is a common life pattern and a myth story that the whole fable must have some value.
It sounds to me like she is grasping because she has pretty much nothing of substance. Lol.
From the link -- pretty weak:
Adam and Eve is the story of humanity. It is what we did to our parents and what our children have to do to us.
Its called cherry picking. Yes some parts of the bible, perhaps a much as 20% were writen eventually ( we don't know about originally ) as poetic metaphors, but you can not use a part to justify the whole.
@Fernapple Yes.
It's also been said that one of the biggest advantages of performing live is that you get to polish your act by learning what works and what doesn't.
They tweaked their show for hundreds of years and what we see today is what survived. They had lots of time to polish their words(tu-ds? Lol).
Bible stories may not be factual - but they are nonetheless-- an alternative fact and we all know that alternative facts are not facts at all. They are lies. I mean, let's face facts. Is it true that the bones of Elijah the prophet brought a dead man back to life? There is only one answer to that question. Now get productive and search bible verses for some other non-truths. There are plenty of them in there.
@brentan Have I not posted, where you have seen, the video I like that explains the garden story from a myth point of view? I have posted the video several times in discussions. The explanation gives the garden story from original language which is different from the English translations. This really does make some difference in understanding the story from the original language.
Just my own thought on one thing from the story is that biblical text gives a genealogy line of decedents giving for the appearance for a connection to people. I do not know exact details but Kind David I understand may of been conceived in adultery but is considered somehow apart of the geneology. King David has been given modern verification by archeology findings.
I must admit I don't remember seeing the video you posted. Maybe you'll post it again? It sounds very interesting.
@brentan It was very good and well worth looking up, it makes clear the pitfalls of the metaphorical view. And shows how, 'maybe' the Hebrew original was distorted to fit Christian theology. Here it is.
[agnostic.com]
@Fernapple @brentan I wouldn't so much say "maybe" was distorted, it is in fact different. This difference in English changes somethings about the story. I do not see it so much as intentional just a fact of the change when translated from original language thru to English. If you consider the English name of Adam, it makes a difference from the original story. Video explains this better than I can.
I watched the video and really liked the positive vibe coming from it. I mean the idea that the fall was more like a step up than a step down. That left me wondering if the recrimination in the story was attached to it later. Another puzzle was that even though the adham was a hermaphrodite, Eve was said to come out of the adham, she is still treated as if she came out of Adam the man and is somehow less than him.
@brentan The incarnation having to do with "knowledge of good and evil". The advanced comprehension of a world of contrast. It is to gain a higher understanding or the greatest of cognative things to think about. The knowledge of good and evil covers just about anything and everything in one way or another. It is what I wrote my book about. The book with only one sentence: Chaper 1 In the beginning "There is good and there is evil." Last chapter The end.
I had the chat room on my other profile to make discussion of the knowledge of good and evil.
The idea that this is, for all the imperfections of nature, a positive move towards consciousness alters the perception of the Fall. So what to make of Jesus in this scenario? Maybe the idea is that the world of innocence was a consciousness without any real cognition. Now we experience the full force of cognition and the idea of Jesus is to bring cognition and consciousness together. This is the gist of Owen Barfield and Julian Jaynes' ideas of the evolution of consciousness.
I think that the development of the story is getting more attention than the story itself. These stories have been made to fit together by writers who were trying to create a sense of identity for a people in exile who were in serious danger of becoming extinct as an ethnic group.
I think you missed out an "ish", as in true-ish, The red sea parting, for example, could have been a strong wind pushing shallow water aside in a lake.
[unilad.co.uk]
Ummmm, what? And if it was just the 4 of them, who got pregnant by whom to populate the earth? I'll wait right here while you think about it......
Three men and one woman. Had it been the other way round, it might have been more feasible!!
To be fair, the story does say that Adam had "other sons and daughters" (Gen 5 3-4). And don't forget Seth! (Poor Seth, everyone forgets him.) So, with the five named parties, plus at least 2 more sons and at least 2 more daughters, we're up to at least 9 folks. Still pretty incestuous, but slightly more workable.
@Triphid Are you going to live for 800 years or so, then?
Maybe, in comparison to the long-lived, super-heroes of the early biblical times, we are the equivalent of "quivering, dribling, deformed, retarded idiots and imbeciles".
Then, let us not forget, the gene pool was again severely reduced during the time of that super mariner, Noah.
Fortunately, the good Lord in his fabulously fabled way, was able to create genetic variations in their offspring so that they could avoid having six fingers and toes. (Unfortunately, he didn't quite get it right in the town where I live, so we have quite a few people living here who can count in hex on their fingers.)
PS. It's no good trying to baffle me with common knowledge science - I started my working life as a bio-chemist in 1960.
@Petter Yep, the whole Eve, Adam, Cain, Abel and Seth scenario kind of reminds me of a song that came out many years ago, i.e. Shame and Scandal in the Family if think it was called.
With Adam telling the boys to go for it because their mummy ain't their mummy but she doesn't know and with Eve doing exactly the same thing as well....LOL.
For something to 'Factual' then logically it must ALSO be true for Truth and Fact go hand in hand do they not?
For example, the earth under our feet IS made up of rock, dirt, minerals, molecules of air, water, decaying animal and vegetable matter, etc, etc, - FACT and 100% Truth.
The sky that surrounds is made up of gases, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon Dioxide, etc, etc, - Fact and Truth.
An Elephant IS a Mammal, A Human is a Mammal, - Fact and Truth,
Mammals, like all other living things live and die, after they die the body begins to rot and decay, -Fact and Truth,
ALL of these and much much besides have Proven, Tried and Tested Empirical Evidence in support of them, is that not so?
Biblical stories have NEVER had ANY Tried, Tested and Proven Empirical Evidence put forward in their favour or support, a 100% Truth and Fact.
Ergo, Bible Stories are neither Factual or True since they have never been tried, tested and proven.
I'm wondering how religious Ireland still in right now in 2020. Seems like there's some pandering going on. Even in the United States I don't know if this would ever be a New York Times or Washington Post piece.
The simple honest answer is it isn't religious anymore. The crimes of the RCC put an end to it completely.
The title sounds like a religious statement can not be true if not factual
True enough. I guess it was click-bait.
Adam and Eve might also be contemplated as you, in thinking and emotions
two men in a bed
two men in a field, and
they were naked, and not ashamed like babies?
eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge then becomes a synopsis of growing up and losing innocence, etc
First understand our reality. It began much much earlier than any god stories on record. Our reality is millions of years old. This god story structure only goes back as far as the writers thought it would have to be. They had no recollection of our much earlier existence thwarting their efforts. So it has only beliefs to carry it. Why waste your time trying to fix it?
The 10 plagues are not true nor are they factual, if the plagues did happen Egypts as the bible records the economy would of been crushed, and since Egypt was a center hub of commerce there would have been a ripple effect through out the known regions that also depended on Egypt commerce and economy, and no such record exists anywhere or any time of such an event ever happening.