Have We Outgrown Bible Stories?
By: Allison J. Van Tilborgh
Tags: Society, Language, History, Religion, Spirituality

Not all narratives are dangerous.

Have We Outgrown Bible Stories?

I honestly don’t think so.

I had a writer send me a message recently criticizing a look at a biblical narrative:

… anyone who thinks that the folk myths of a group of neurotic ignorant goat-herders of 3,000 years ago could have any relevance whatsoever to any aspect of life today is beyond the reach of reason.

There’s some merit to this criticism. Modern science gives us a fresh perspective on why we do the things we do — including in the realm of belief and religious ‘experience.’ Great pieces by Tanya Luhrmann and Mark Taylor speak of the way we believe through action: the folding of the hands, the ‘speaking’ to God, the spiritual experience of physically reading a piece of religious text. The ways we are built can explain much about what tendencies we gravitate toward.

There is also an element of want in belief; the desires to subscribe to a collection of thoughts by some route of reason. There is ‘craving’ for answers or some larger wisdom. The philosopher Charles Peirce talks about habit and belief this way:

“Habit of which we are not aware, or with which we are not deliberately satisfied, is not belief.” The Essential Peirce, Vol 1, Pg 12

In this line of thinking, we must not only act, and think, but be aware and subscribe.

I don’t think that articulation of a biblical narrative (such as of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac or Ishmael depending on what tradition you are reading) is meant to explain the overall Why, with a capital ‘w’ of religion. Such an articulation of themes and semantics is not meant to critically think about the actions of a physical person who physically existed at a specific point in our human conception of time (though who knows, it might have happened… and whether or not it did is beside the point anyway). It’s about what such an understanding can lead us to do in the present. It’s about the lessons we can learn from a parable, not a history lesson as to whether or not it happened.

Religion is a driver of modern life and decision making, an influencer of identity and answerer of existential questions. In other words, it behaves much like other systems of faith, including modern science, atheism, and agnosticism. One of my favorite pieces by Saba Mahmood writes about secularization, not as the absence of religion, but the restructuring of it. In other words, it’s not about the agreed set of beliefs about the subject matter but defining the ways and perimeters in which we allow religion to affect our lives (at least politically). Modern science, atheism, and agnosticism, likewise is not the absence of belief but a reaction to prevailing views that have accumulated over thousands of years in our nook of the world.

It’s also worth noting that such ‘theological narratives’ are not all ‘dangerous’ alike. Not all religious sentiment must be cleansed by secularism in the same way, to comply with modern scientific ideas or societal practices.

Take Buddhism: full of fantastic, allegorical stories about life, death, suffering, and joy. Today, many would consider Buddhism to be a world religion, but also ‘secular’ at the same time. Many Buddhists today do not associate their beliefs in Buddhist ‘philosophy’ with divine belief in gods (within or outside of their views of rebirth). Buddhism, the ‘religion of peace’ — is it, too, as destructive to Western normative religious belief… is it fair to call it a ‘real religion’? Is it a philosophy? What separates this from Abrahamic faith at a fundamental level? Is this a modern crusade again Religion or only certain religion.

Because we are human, just like our parents, grandparents, and ancestors, we are susceptible to the exact same temptation of belief and assumption. We are not better than them. We are violent, mean, confused, scared, hungry, and craving beings. We are, in large part, not much more advanced than them on this level.

We can use the parables of times past to tap into the parts of ourselves that exist, here, today, much like the writers of these stories, existed then.

In other words, I still find much value in the articulation of biblical narratives in the present time, and find in many ways, we too, are “neurotic ignorant goat-herders of 3,000 years ago.”