Why It Doesn’t Matter if Some Things in the Scriptures Don’t Make Logical Sense

[Third Hour]

Sometimes we think if something is in the Bible or another holy text, it must have actually happened in real life. This outlook makes it a little difficult to explain things like how Jonah survived living inside a whale for a few days (in case you didn’t know, it’s highly unliekly that it's scientifically possible to do so) or why there’s a talking donkey in the Book of Numbers (also scientifically unlikely). So what do we do when the scriptures don’t seem to make any logical sense? Should we just blindly take whatever is in the Bible as a bonafide fact? I would argue no. A lot of us have made the mistake of assuming that scripture is a genre of its own, which is basically equivalent to calling Netflix a genre. The Bible, like Netflix, is a compilation of various different genres. Jonah and the whale, for example, is a satirical story — it doesn’t make sense scientifically because it was never meant to. Once we can pinpoint what kind...

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[Guest LiterateParakeet]

Fascinating perspective!

[2ndRateMind]

Precisely. The difficulty that arises, however, is disentangling historical fact from myth, or fable, which  convey their truths in a fictional manner. And that is where I think a logical approach, aka reason supported by evidence, has a significant role to play.

Best wishes, 2RM.

Edited April 20, 2019 by 2ndRateMind

[Guest Mores]

Yeah, let's just dismiss anything in scriptures that we don't understand because our scientific knowledge today is so complete that we know better than God.

I mean, who needs prophets anyway when we have scientist to tell us all about the realities of God?

Edited April 22, 2019 by Mores