> On 24 May 2019, at 09:56, Philip Thrift <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 7:00:51 PM UTC-5, Lawrence Crowell wrote: > On Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 6:08:11 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote: > > > On 5/23/2019 3:37 PM, Lawrence Crowell wrote: >> The Torah, Tanach and to a degree as I understand the Christian New >> Testament are mythic narratives meant to bring meaning to various aspects of >> inner mental space or psychology. > > I think you impute to much cleverness there. A lot it is, or was, intended > as real history providing both provenance and justification for whatever > ethics was being pushed at the time. > > Brent > > The writers of these narratives were rather clever. These are done in a > literary "shape-shifter" fashion so that they can be interpreted in a wide > range of ways. The book of Exodus, or Shemot (שְׁמוֹת) in Hebrew Shem = name > and Shemot is plural or means the list of names, has the children of Israel > leave Egypt (Mitzrayim) in the narrow place (Mezaryim), narrow in one meaning > because of the Nile. They are lead to the Red Sea where the water is > separated and crash, where red is symbolic of blood. Also remember one of the > plagues on Egypt was the Nile turned to blood. This is a birth motif, and > certainly one message is this is a metaphor for the birth of Israel. The > Torah is packed full of this sort of thing, and it involves a lot of word > play. > > This is not to say there are not literal meanings as well, which in different > ages are rather different. The American conservative Protestant idea about > Christianity is a peculiar redaction on the whole meaning. I can't say about > the Koran and what Islamic scholars think. It is not a subject I have delved > into, nor am I ever likely to. Samiya has posted some curious stuff that > equates Koranic passages with meaning about atoms and at one time if I recall > about the Higgs boson. So the writers there were clever enough to make the > narratives and poetry shift metaphors and retranslate meaning into different > forms as the world learns and matures. It really is one reason these > scriptures have remained so culturally and socially powerful for many > centuries. > > My religious background is Judaism and Catholicism. I ended up choosing > Judaism, simply because it is in a way more intellectual, it is more fun, and > Catholicism has it perks here and there but it is also rather grave and grey. > I generally consider myself quite agnostic about the idea of an infinite > disembodied entity that created and controls everything. The idea simply runs > into contradictions. I can still go to the minion, where it is the same > reason the fiddler stays on the roof (Issac B Singer) --- tradition. If I > were Catholic instead I think it would be the same thing. > > LC > > > > > The advantage for being raised Protestant is that the only next step is > atheism - the ultimate Protestantism.
>From a (neo)platonic perspective, atheism is a slight variant of Christianity: - same conception of the creator (and interdiction to improve the notion) than the christian, even if it is just to deny its existence. - same conception of the creation (a well defined reality made of stuff). Bruno > > Protestantism (in the US) today is split: A collection of (sometimes) > church-going virtually-atheist liberals, and the Republican Party. > > @philipthrift > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/36e2d76e-c237-4d43-90d6-a38bf3c246ae%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/36e2d76e-c237-4d43-90d6-a38bf3c246ae%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/73015B53-A155-4B0C-A668-F3975B551EC4%40ulb.ac.be.
