Religions around the world use beautiful and amazing stories to inspire goodwill and cobweb cleansing practices to try and keep things real. Why do people nitpick each others language?
2006-06-16 18:30:49 · 12 answers · asked by Jake B 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Who says they are symbolic? That's only your opinion.
2006-06-16 18:34:48 · answer #1 · answered by photoguy1959 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It goes to the matter of truth. If people have a real encounter with the real God though then it does become true.
Just test it out. If it is true, then ask the real God to show himself to you.
Really one cannot say that scriptures are merely stories any more than one can say they are fact unless you have evidence. And i know that the bible has evidence, heaps of it in fact, to show that these things were not stories made up but real happenings.
One also cannot discount stories as being true just because they don't sound real and weird things happen. One has to look to the details and how it reads.
A lot of myth reads a certain way - not clear on details of place, time, just "once upon a time" or a long time ago. But real stories have detail that can be verified, times and places that are real or were real, and the accounts match historical evidence.
Unusual as many things in the bible sound, there is a lot of detail in these stories, and clues that can and have been verified by scholars and archaeologists. Compare that to the Mormon account of things in their Book of Mormon, a lot of details that don't make any sense, a complete lack of archaeological evidence to back it up, and even one of their supposed original manuscripts has been found to be an Egyptian book of the dead.
The bible is funny too because it can be both real and symbolic at the same time. it is not simply history or poetry but a kind of writing that has a theological intent. Everything in the bible just about was included or ordered in such a way to communicate something about God, not just a matter of history. It's God's love letter to us. In a sense there is no other writing quite like it.
2006-06-16 18:40:59 · answer #2 · answered by rapturefish 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I find no reason to be annoyed. May be there is a little misunderstanding. I can say about the Bible, more than any other scripture, that it is not symbolic as you have understood. True, it uses symbols, allegory, poetry, prose, narration, and other kinds of literary forms to convey God's message. One can not ignore the historical element in its narratives. All the books in the Bible are written by real people, who lived in specific times in history, and in their real life situations. It is not a product of imagination as some accuse. The issue is, if one admits the Bible as authentic and true (as it claims), then he/she has to make a choice either to accept it or reject it. Some try to pacify themselves by classifying it as fiction or mythology. You may want to check out the archaeological evidences that establish the historic authenticity of the Bible.
2006-06-16 18:57:12 · answer #3 · answered by lalskii 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Indeed, where is the authority by which you declare them symbolic. The text itself claims to be speaking fact, it self states non fiction. If we impose another view upon it, that is OUR will, not the author's. What makes your authority greater than the author's. Do you not really mean that these stories, if factual present the most popular and herd like views of God with a lot of inconvenience? When someone stand up in court and says, "this is the last will and testament of..." You might as well interrupt the proceedings and say "no it's not, it's fiction, I wasn't there, but I say so."
2006-06-16 18:40:40 · answer #4 · answered by spencer 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some things in scripture are symbolic, and some things in scripture are factual. That is the way God intended it. It is God's book, He can write it any way He wants to. It just takes a seeker of the truth to understand the difference. If you are not willing to put forth a little mental effort to discern what is symbolic and what is factual, then you will be confused. I am sure God knew that when He inspired the bible to be written. God is not going to give us understanding on a silver platter, I am sure He expects a little work on our part.
2006-06-16 19:03:12 · answer #5 · answered by mole man 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No not much annoys me .And I respect what others believe in .There are so many things to enjoy that allowing any part of you to become bothered when it's clearly a choice .Why waste any part of your valued life being bothered by simple choices ? I really enjoy this sight , I relax after work and answer only what I want to .I turn it off when children begin to play on it . But I enjoy reading other answers and replying to some questions.RELAX , and let less bother you . Have a great night !
2006-06-16 18:41:19 · answer #6 · answered by Fairy Tale 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They may seem symbolic to you simply because you are not familiar with the culture they came from, or because they were written in a time and place we understand very little of.
Obviously there are parables and stories that illustrate a concept or represent something else. That doesn't mean they are all symbolic, though. I see no reason to be annoyed.
2006-06-16 18:36:36 · answer #7 · answered by Ruth 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i find it more disturbing than annoying. clearly most people don't know the history of their religious texts nor the culture and times from which they came. it would be very nice to see people actually understand the context in which these scriptures were written. then they would be better able to understand the content.
2006-06-23 14:01:12 · answer #8 · answered by Bob B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If they were clearly symbolic, why are people taking them as fact?
I'm not saying they're TRUE (I'm agnostic), but I don't see that they're necessarily supposed to be symbolic either. I think that in many cases the people who wrote them believed them as fact.
2006-06-16 20:02:21 · answer #9 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not as much as people taking the theory of evolution as fact when it is clearly just a theory.
2006-06-16 18:42:25 · answer #10 · answered by Juliart 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋