jfw (03/10/83)
Gee, I bet if archeologists burned people at the stake for disagreeing with them, you'd find mighty few ``contradictions'' in evolution. Scientists are willing to change their views when evidence suggests that their interpretations are wrong. Bible ``scholars'' at best re-translate the Bible, a marvelous way of removing contradictions -- if meaning X is a contradiction, then postulate meaning Y...
djhawley (03/10/83)
It seems there are two basic approaches to the Bible (or other 'scripture')
1) Treat it as literature on an equal standing with other works
2) A priori, treat it as special
These two positions are fruitlessly bashing each other, because they
come from such different starting points. A christian comes to the
Bible believing it is true ( at least most christians, I don't want
to tempt any flamers..) for extra-biblical reasons, some of these
subjective -- a basic christian doctrine is the necessity of God
( in His function of the Holy Spirit ) to reveal the truth of
scripture. This may seems mystical, and sometimes it is.
The way 'truth' is discovered in christian theology is the
intersection of revelation, tradition, selected(on morality, wisdom)
peoples thoughts, etc, where revelation is both enscripturated and
personal enlightenment.
In this light, christians try hard to reconcile 'contradictions'
in scripture because they a priori ( sort of ) believe it is true.
However I vehemently deny that this is anti-intellectual.
FLAME away, but please no tiresome list of apparent contradictions
that must be tediously researched and discarded.....
David Hawley