My recommendation: Find the new testament gospel scripture in which
Jesus says he would like to gather Jerusalem under his wings. Or
pick any bit of scripture in which some metaphorical use is clear
(the psalms are good for this). Then ask the student if Jesus had
wings.
The moral of this story is that there are different kinds of texts in
the bible, sometimes mashed up against each other in the same "book."
Poetry, polemical history, gospel (which is both more and less than
history), letters, liturgy, wisdom sayings, etc. One modern tendency
(and here is where fundamentalists are perversely modern and
positivistic) is to treat the entire critter as a single kind of
thing from which "bits" can be gathered in a way similar to gathering
"facts" from nature. Short reflection on the purpose of the
different kinds of texts in the bible leads one to see this is a real
stretcher (as my granddad would say).
If she is treating the bible as a kind of self report data from
ancient sources (rather than authoritative data the way
fundamentalists do), the best we can get is that certain folks found
it in their interest to write these things. We can be sure they were
not doing science, though they may well have been making some kind of
truth claim.
-Chuck
PS: BOY is that short clip a distorted version of Daniel! You might
find some support from your religious studies colleagues on campus if
you wanted to teach a section on "prophecy is predicting the future."
Lots of fun there. At least in the Old Testament, prophecy is
usually more like "bringing God's word to the people" (who usually
slay the messenger).
- Chuck Huff; 507.646.3169; http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/
- Psychology Department, St.Olaf College, Northfield, MN 55057
At 3:31 PM -0400 4/4/00, Michael J. Kane wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I turn to you for wisdom in how to respond to a student...
>
>I teach a "Weird Beliefs" course in which we critically examine
>Psi/ESP, among other things. We covered the Psi portion of
>the course several weeks ago, and we discussed recovered/
>false memories today. Interestingly, my question involves
>responding to the former issue, rather than the latter.
>
>At the end of each class I take attendance by having everyone
>spend 5 minutes writing informally about their thoughts on
>the lecture, and/or any questions they might still have. Students
>turn these in and I always provide written responses to any
>questions.
>
>Today a student turned in the following question at the end of
>her paper, and I'd like your thoughts about how to respond to
>it:
>
>"Not to get off the subject, but I found out that there was a
> prophet named Daniel in the Bible who was thrown in a
> cave full of lions because he had the power to see the
> future or something. My thing is if this type of stuff which is
> like a psychic power is in the Bible, that must mean there
> is some type of proof about the psychic world. Right !?"
>
>In our class discussions of Psi, we talked not only about the
>reasoning/perception/memory errors that might contribute to
>paranormal belief, but also talked about the history of
>experimental Psi research, with all its problems and weak-
>nesses. So I don't think that regurgitating the facts is
>going to have an impact here.
>
>I am struggling with striking the proper balance between
>respecting her religious faith and fulfilling my obligation as
>a critical-thinking teacher by explaining why a Biblical story
>"don't make it so" by scientific standards. I'm also not
>sure whether she's claiming that because the Bible says
>it it's true, or that the Bible wouldn't say it unless there were
>other, corraborating sources of evidence, too.
>
>Any advice on an approach?
>
>-Mike
>
>
>*****************************************************
>Michael J. Kane
>Psychology Department
>Georgia State University
>University Plaza
>Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
>phone: 404-651-0704
>fax: 404-651-0753
>email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>"It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing
> is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good,
> as it is not to care how you got your money as
> long as you have it."
> -- E.W. Teale
