coluber2001 wrote:Extra Medium: I can't help but wonder, judging from the titles of your threads about Satan etc., whether you're using Socratic irony or are playing the devil's advocate or what. Some of your posts show an intelligent insight, but your obsession with literal religious images, e.g., satan, makes me wonder.
The film, "What Heaven May Bring," starring Robin Williams addresses some similar questions, but the film is most interesting if taken metaphorically rather than as a view of a literal heaven.
I know--I see the whole thing as a metaphor, if anything.
Here's one thing I am attempting to examine: 50+ denominations read & interpret the Bible literally & metaphorically, at different points, when it suits them. "Oh, this_________part is a metaphor, and this ________ part is to be read literally." And they all argue over which parts are literal, which are metaphors.
Its one of the central areas of debate & strife & disagreement.
My idea is: if we're going to decide individually when the Bible is a metaphor and when it is literal, it renders the entire thing almost meaningless.
"Oh, the 10 Commandments? That was just a metaphor & simile. Its really okay to kill, they just meant don't kill wantonly" or some such. Denominations do this all the time (though perhaps not as flagrant, its every bit as bad and sometimes more insidious because they sometimes camouflage it well.)
Thus, I am interested in people's differing views on some of these questions. Interensting how 100 people can have 150 different ideas about the same passage.
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