Originally Posted by Malorn
I would also state that a lot of the actual conflict arises because some religious folk view their holy texts as absolute fact and interpret it literally, which does not seem logically sound given that contexts change drastically over hundreds and thousands of years, as does human interaction. The context under which a text was written may be entirely different in the present day.
|
Not sure why I only snipped this part, I didn't want to re-quote the whole post but had a hard time picking out the exactly relevant parts.
Anyway the reason you are having such a hard time here is, there is really nothing about religion that is logical. You aren't supposed to change it to fit logic or meet with science. That is what faith is all about, unquestioning adherence to some illogical set of stories whose interpretation of the meaning changes, or rather classifies one denomination from the other.
1. If the Bible or other religious texts are/were the work of man, then they are inherently fallible and in no way are they fit to be the basis of a religion nor would they be authoritative on the wishes or intentions of God. If this is the case then the text SHOULD be questioned and SHOULD be changed and where it disagrees with what we learn through proper science then it should simply be modified or deleted. Good luck with that eh? At this point we can look at all the fallacies and inconsistencies we see in the texts and pretty much dismiss almost all of it in the name of logic and science and keep the good parts like don’t kill, don’t lie, love your neighbor… but not your neighbor’s wife that is a no-no as well. So in the end religion is a nice summary of rules on how to be nice. We may as well get Miss Manners to re-write the books.
2. If the Bible is the “inspired” word of God, then it is still a work of man, see above.
3. If the Bible is the true word of God then it is beyond reproach and perfect in every way. There should be no room for interpretation or issues of logic. God is by definition a perfect being incapable of error.
“Revelation 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”
So God is aware of what will be, and therefore there should not be any need to “update” or interpret any of God’s word for a “more modern time” as he would be aware of these modern times and his word, being perfect will still hold true in this time and all times. We may need to dig and search and cross-reference the text to understand spiritual meaning within but every word of the Book MUST be taken as the pure word of God and read literally. If it is not then it is the work of man, and if it is the work of man… then see point 1.
So now the problem lies, does science disagree with the literal reading of the religious text? If it does, and the text is the pure word of God, then the scientific conclusions must be wrong. If the science is not wrong, then the text is in question. If the text is in question then how can it be the word of God, therefore the whole text is in question. If the text is 100% correct then every point of contention between the two pretty much turns up our whole understanding of the world and many different fundamentals of many different branches of science. I’d say that is a bit of a conflict.