It seems clear to me that the Bible is composed of stories that were handed down verbally over millennia, eventually written down, and edited under strong religious/political pressure.
Claims of divine origin seems to me to be entirely without foundation, and a product of wishful thinking.
Very simple.
Any analysis of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin thus seems silly.
So I do find all this interesting in a historical way, but when complicated arguments designed to explain away internal contradictions come along, my eyes kinda glaze over.
Historically, the flood story is very interesting, for example. Did the Black Sea quickly flood, sparking those legends? Or was it the larger, but earlier, melting of the ice sheets, which led to more global effects? Interesting.
But the moral twist given the Noah story, after it was adapted from the Babylonian, just seems silly when taken too seriously.
Have you read the Epic of Gilgamesh? The flood story there is really quite fascinating when you consider how much it pre-dated the Noah story.
- fanofnothing 2012-05-09 12:39:22 (150 views)
- bongo 2012-05-11 16:20:01 (67 views)
