LogFAQs > #884911727

ParanoidObsessive posted...

To be fair, it's not as if the people writing the stories would have any capacity to understand that as a concept, and the people they wanted to read it certainly wouldn't.

Imagine yourself traveling back in time and trying to explain what a cel phone is and how it was made to a caveman, without resorting to "ehh, umm... okay, it's sort of like magic" to explain away some concept that they're thousands of years away from ever understanding.

I do imagine that, because all nerds imagine sending relatively advanced technology back in time. But that's neither here nor there.

I don't think that's fair at all. There are plenty of metaphors for iterative construction that would be readily grasped by bronze-agers. None are apparent in a straight reading of Genesis. So even as an allegory it's hard to argue that Genesis doesn't contradict evolution, at least implicitly by the omission of such a metaphor.

We're talking about the Kent Hovinds of the world, people who take a very strong (and decidedly selective) stance against anything the Bible doesn't say. Why it doesn't say it isn't of any relevance to them, and the fact that they dismiss the notion of the Bible being a product of its time is extremely important to addressing Lok's question. This is a point that differentiates something like Young Earth Creationists from other Christians.

As for Leviticus, my takeway is that it shows the importance of having some working clocks to test a broken clock against. Elsewise you gum things up with at least 5 needless chapters on the magical properties of goats amidst some decent advice on not drinking too much alcohol.

(Also, I don't have a fucking clue how Paul saw the world, let alone think a certain way about it. :p)
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