tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982472831794132383.post7665758489500907140..comments2023-10-29T07:44:49.963-04:00Comments on Worshipping at the Church of Non-Realism: Emmaus: Key to the Church before PaulPete Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17003978838276701270noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982472831794132383.post-53523211576474282042010-03-25T11:02:24.192-04:002010-03-25T11:02:24.192-04:00Hershey,
Thanks for your helpful comments. Yes, I ...Hershey,<br />Thanks for your helpful comments. Yes, I do have concerns that fundamentalists and other extremists seem to be calling the shots in our country: witness the craziness around health care.<br />PetePete Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17003978838276701270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982472831794132383.post-9273396874610950302010-03-25T11:01:37.404-04:002010-03-25T11:01:37.404-04:00Peter, apparently your dream reflected your concer...Peter, apparently your dream reflected your concern about people being mistaken in taking the Bible literally. I have three comments:<br /> 1) In the case of the Emmaus story, the error of the literalists is in not seeing what Michael Goulder points out: that Luke has Jesus doing "haggadic midrash." Of course, a fundamentalist would not accept Goulder's exegesis of the story because she/he is blinded by being a literalist.<br /> 2) The only way I see to confront the fundamentalist view that the whole Bible is a human construction (humans made it all up) is to show that it cannot be revelation from a supernatural god, because it contains so many internal contradictions: one author contradicting another and sometimes an author inconsistently contradicting himself, as happens in Paul's letters. Presumably an all-knowing god would not contradict god's self! <br /> 3) If there were a god who created humans, presumably that god would would want to communicate with his/her created humanity and that communication would be internally consistent, without contradictions. Since we do not have such a communication, I conclude that there is no god "out there" to make such a communication.<br /> HersheyHersheynoreply@blogger.com