Glenn's comment

From: John Burgeson (burgy@compuserve.com)
Date: Thu Nov 09 2000 - 14:04:48 EST

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    Glenn wrote: "Liberals accept science but make the Bible little more than a
    fairy tale and conservatives make fools of themselves by denying what is
    clearly before their eyes. It all makes one wonder if Christians would know
    the truth if it hit them in the face!"

    As a practicing "liberal," I have to take issue with that, Glenn.

    "little more than a fairy tale" is a phrase that predetermines the outcome
    of your argument.

    And not all conservatives deny the evidence.

    By polarizing the question, you make it difficult to discuss.

    For this "liberal," and I really don't like the label very much, the
    "language of appearance" argument takes care of many of the apparent
    problems. We still say the sun comes up in the morning, when we know darn
    well it is the horizon that goes down. The argument that people of
    2000-3000 years ago did not discern with any clarity the difference between
    "real historical fact" and "stories we have been told from our youth"
    handles most of the rest. When Peter, for instance, referred to the Flood,
    he referred to "what everybody had known since childhood," and the literal
    history of the event was not anything he, or his audience, even thought
    about. maybe they would have cared; who knows. Assume for a moment that
    Peter cared, and had done the necessary research (many years) to conclude
    that the flood was possibly local. Or even that God had whispered that fact
    to him as he began his essay. what would he have possibly done with that
    information? Would we have a longer book of Peter in the NT, one that
    explained the scientific (20th century view) of the flood before he made
    his argument?

    I think not.

    Burgy



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