Hi Alan,
Oops, I don't know what happened here, but seems like my reply got sent in the middle of writing it. Darn computers. Anyway, as I said, many parts probably escaped me because of the language barrier. It is such a shame that people would do that, claiming they found the ark if really they didn't. They probably thought about money and fame, huh?
I agree fully, that poetic language is hard to use literal most of the time. However, the problem with poetic language is that often metaphors are used which represent things that only the writer knows. We all know that green is a (overused) metaphor for youth, but Shakespeare used the green eyed monster to indicate jealousy. I could easily write a poem about the green eyed monster, making it a metaphor for youth, in my write it would be a monster because it yet has to be refined in human experiences. You know what I mean? So, often, there is no way of telling -one way or the other- what exactly was meant by a certain metaphor. Don't get me wrong, I'm not implying that the circle in Isaiah is a metaphor, I'm merely stating that poetic language can often be hard to understand.
Nevertheless, the fact that poetic language was used in some books and not in others in a way inspires me to believe that the bible was inspired by God. Not sure how to explain this.. The bible was written over a period of 1,600 years. If the assumption is true that it is a collection of books written by humans, not inspired by God, then it would not look the way it does. Try to accumulate 66 books that were written over a period of 1,600 years by 40 different authors, all written about the same subject. What would you find? Or what would your criterium be to select the books? There would be no merit in finding 66 books that used the same writing technique, because that would be easy to do. When I write a poem today, I still use the same techniques to hook the reader as poets did 300 years ago. The techniques never change. But try to find 66 books written by 40 different people, handling the same subject.. this is perfectly well possible. Many authors over the years have written about the same subjects.. peace, love, the passage of time, infinity, nature.. you name it. But to find 66 books that are in harmony with one another, I honestly don't think it is possible. We write what we live. Read any book that was written 200 years ago, and you will 'feel' the difference. The writer had an entirely different mindset back then.
I totally agree that ambiguity reigns once again, but let's not forget that it reigns both ways.
For now I will have to stick to my original idea, meaning that even if the bible is not inspired by God, it is and always will be a great book to live by. In the meantime, I will not stop researching many things.
