Exactly. I respect everyone's right to believe whatever they think, just so long as we don't end up with a theocracy and public policy and education aren't dictated by faith-based initiatives.

I don't think she was dismissing anything about cultural truths or how they get mixed in with religious teachings. I think she was merely pointing out that there's a huge amount that cannot be taken at face value and that many of the things people think are proven are nothing more than fabrications. I've heard Christians talk about how Jesus definitely existed because the Romans kept such good records, and we have the documentation of Jesus's crucifixion, etc., when in reality there's no such evidence. I think that's really what she was pointing out, using examples from the Old Testament.

@VictoriaNotes Hokie Dokie.

[Nothing I'm writing in this reply has anything to do with any type of god or deity]

1. We observe that the universe emerged with matter, space, and time.

2. We observe that we are living under a dome that separates a fluid above from a fluid below. We call it the Heliopause, and when Voyager 1 broke through it, the plasma (a fluid) density shot up to 100 times the density of the same fluid inside the heliopause. [note that I'm conflating heliopause, solar magnetosphere, and bow shock)

3. We can propose, based on the long time it takes for the nucleosynthesis of nitrogen plus the time we observe for multi-cellular life to develop on earth, that plant life could not have occurred until a little over a third of the way into the life of the universe.

4. We observe that our local solar system showed up at about 2/3 of the way into the life of the universe.

5. We believe (a) that we were descended from something that was naked, ate fruit, exhibited estrus, had wider hips and smaller heads than we do, and the LCA of Australopithecus and Homo had potential to develop symbolic communication for the purpose of controlling their environmnet [Australopithecus sediba]

6. There really was a leaving of a small group of us from somewhere more or less idyllic under harsh circumstances. [Africa Replacement Hypothesis]

7. There was a point when some of us switched from plant-based clothing to animal-hide clothing. A good but completely circumstantial case for the Toba eruption fostering this can be made.

8. Note the inclusion of the Genesis detail of "fountains of the deep" (ground water) in its flood myth; while the original Gilgamesh flood was rain-only. We observe that the last earliest of the latest round of megaflooding was the Missoula Floods, which were groundwater, at the end of MIS 2.

Just sayin',

@VictoriaNotes You are correct, madam. But it makes the fiction more interesting.

Indeed. I shared it more for the specific points she made, and the way in which she made them. I found it to be witty and fun.

I own a couple of Bibles. I see nothing wrong with it as literature of a particular era to understand the people and culture of the time, just so long as nobody's taking it literally.

@resserts Actually, I also have a Bible....is in Spanish and it was printed in 1952....I have as literature.

Welp, I guess we have to pack it in and give up our godless ways, then. It was a good run, but now it's time to devote our lives to Jesus.

You might have to send it to me when you finish!!

Sorry, I'm too frugal to buy a one time read, it is a library book.

Aldo good is Karen Armstrong " A history of God"

Hey!...hes the man!?

I sometimes think about how it would be fun to write some mythology and just bury them somewhere in airtight containers, with no attribution or explanation, to screw with future generations — but I can't in good conscience do it.

You’re welcome @MsOliver

Thank you. I'll bookmark it for later reading.

I think there's a cultural context in which historicity plays a part, but so much of biblical writings are from decades, centuries, or millennia after the purported events took place, and at that point I consider it oral tradition more than solid history. But, from an anthropological perspective, I think these works can shed a lot of light on the period in which they were actually written.

@MsOliver Thank you!