Fudementalist Genesis Beliefs

by BU2B 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  PSacramento

  The weirdness all starts from trying to apply modern principles of reason and science to this ancient text. The ancients knew it was allegory. It's only the foolishness of modern man that tries to make sense of it.

  Quite correct.

  It's a "modern" thing really.

  WHile some of the ancients might have viewed some parts as "literal fact", since there was no reason to NOT view it as such at the time, many, like Augustine, kept a very opne mind to the "literal and concrete" reading of Genesis.

  Of course when we say "read it literally" we mean "literal and concrete" as opposed to what they meant and what we SOULD mean, which is to read it in its literal genre.
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  Chaserious

  designs: That's a great point, although I think that some of these politicians are just preening for their constituents. Like when Marco Rubio said in an interview:

  " Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries."

  He was trying to be non-committal without antagonizing his base or appearing anti-science. The firestorm he got for it afterward showed that you really can't have it both ways. I serious doubted he is actually a young-earth creationist, which he clarified with a subsequent statement basically saying he believes the earth is 4 billion years old but that doesn't contradict creation.
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  designs

  Chaserious- It is a tight rope for the Fundamentalist. Judaism began the allegorical interpretation of Genesis before Jesus. St. Augustine viewed the 7 days of creation as occuring in one day, Catholicism now sees Genesis as a literary construct to allow for science and a belief that God started it all.