From: thughes@cs.dal.ca (Tracy L. Hughes)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: A beginner's question
Date: 25 Jan 93 05:14:20 GMT
Organization: Math, Stats & CS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

Ross D'souza writes:

>I am a relatively new Christian, and I have the following question.
>
>Some people tell me that some parts of the Bible should be taken
>literally, and some parts should not. My question is: how does one
>discern which parts are to be taken literally and which should not?
>

Hello  


I am one of the people who would have told you this (...:) ) so I will
make an attempt to answer your question.


A few good questions to ask yourself when attempting to decide if a passage
should be taken literally are, I think,

      Is this passage based firmly on love (ie is it clear how this passage
      can be derived from "Love thy God first and Love thy neighbors
      as thyself").  

      What would be the fruits of applying this passage?  

      Why do you want, or not want, to take a particular passage literally?
      (Beware of passages that, if taken literally, would profit you in
       a worldly sense, especially if it is at the expense of someone else.)

      Is the "literal" spirit of the passage, as it appears to you,
      what was actually meant by the passage?

      etc.


Why?  Hmmmm, Let me try to explain...

Let us say you are studying math.  Now in almost every math book there are
errors, but the overall message of the book, ie. what it was meant to teach
you, comes through clearly.  Now when you have learned the overall message,
you can do one of two things with those things in the book which you found
to be inconsistant with what you were taught in the book:

1) correct them.

2) keep them as exceptions (and attempt to find some way to explain why
   they should be so).

Mind you, if you are studying to be an engineer, if you keep the exceptions
they may cause great harm sometime later in their actual application...:)


The best verses to question, I think, fall into two categories:

1) Those verses which may save you trouble in working towards your salvation.

2) Those verses which may cause harm to other people, either directly or in a 
   "non-forgiving" sense.   (I think "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" 
   is a good example of a verse which causes harm in a non-forgiving sense when
   applied externally, which I think most Christians agree on.  The verses
   different Christians think harm other people unfairly in a direct
   sense differs vastly from group, from "none at all", to "just this one",
   to "all of these".  In the interest of not making this a "convert to my
   sort of Christianity" article I shall not mention which verses I
   personally find harmful.)


The only passages this really matters on are those that affect how we go about
our salvation and how we interact with other people.  Other passages, such
as the virginity of Mary, may have important theological implications to
some people but I don't think you will be admitted to heaven based on whether 
you believed them or not... they are sort of peripheral to Christ's
message to us, whether they are true or not.


The reason I advocate this sort of questioning Christianity is because I
have found that, in application, the fruits of the doctrine "Do not question,
as God is so much wiser than you" to be very evil.  Almost every religion
uses this sort of doctrine to keep hold of its members.  In fact, it can be
said that this very doctrine, when applied in other religions, has kept
millions of people away from Christianity.  Based on this, I do not think
God would insist on the same sort of belief within Christianity that has
harmed the world so much outside of Christianity (and considering the vast
differences in doctrines within Christianity is probably harming as many
people within it)....

-Tracy