Biblical Literalist

More than 2500 years ago in ancient Greece Aristotle invented three laws for thinking clearly. Aristotle termed these laws “Logic.” Aristotle invented logic because he wanted to open a shorter pathway to discovering the “truth”. One of these laws is commonly known as the Law of the Excluded Middle. The Law of the Excluded Middle says if two statements (statement “A” and statement “B”) contradict each other then either “A” is correct or “B” is correct. Logic requires that both “A” and “B” cannot be correct. But there is a third possibility: both statement “A” and statement “B” can be incorrect!

Lets put Aristotle’s Law of the Excluded Middle to the test. Before 1492 many educated people argued and debated that the earth was flat. The debate sizzled over whether the earth was flat like a pizza box (to use a modern analogy) with four corners or was the earth flat and round like a pizza pie. Did the earth have four corners or was the earth round? The argument raged for centuries until Columbus proved that the earth was neither square and flat nor round and flat but rather the earth was a sphere. Both statements, “A” and “B,” were incorrect.

What does the Bible say about the shape of the earth? According to Is.11:12, “And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”

In the Bible, according to Dan.2:35, “Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This could only be possible on a flat, disc-shaped earth and not on a spherical earth because “a great mountain” that fills a spherical earth will simply increase the overall diameter of the earth with no noticeable change in topography.

The Book of Daniel continues with (Dan 4:11) : “The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth. Only on a flat earth would this be possible since you cannot see over the horizon of a round earth.

In Mt.4:5-8, “the devil taketh him (Jesus) up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.” In Lk.4:5 the story is repeated: “and the devil, taking him (Jesus) up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.” It seems Jesus, 2000 years ago, surveyed before him a flat earth!

Finally, in the book of Revelation (7:1), the Bible tells us: “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.”

Mr. Enderle, above I offer more evidence, straight from the horses mouth, showing why the Bible is not the bastion of all encompassing truth. On the contrary, the Bible is replete with errors, contradictions, and false logic. You tell us the Bible is not a scientific journal, but you will use the Bible to tell our teachers how to teach biology, astronomy and cosmology. You tell us the truth does not have to make sense because “...God is far beyond anything we can imagine or understand.” But in the next paragraph you tell us that Jesus is God’s gift to mankind. Unless you have God like understanding, how do you know? You could not possible get it from the Bible because it is full of errors, contradictions, and false logic. So, how do you know, Mr. Enderle?
With finger wagging, you say every doctor, lawyer, businessman, scientist, professor, judge, and philosopher who studied the Bible came away “...one hundred percent...Christians”. Does your list include Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, Benedict Spinoza Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Max Planck, Isaac Asimov, Richard Feynman and Stephen Hawking? None of these folks were/are Christians but all of them in one form or another studied the holy books some of which the Council of Nicene in 325 proclaimed to be the Bible. Does your list include the tens of thousands of philosophers and clergymen who speak for the 5 billion people on earth (80%) who are not Christians?

You arrogantly state, Mr. Enderle, “I didn’t see the need to belittle (me) about the... various verses because I made the same kinds of errors....’ I submit, Mr. Enderle, you will not explain the verses because as a True Believer you are not capable of explaining their literal meaning without being forced to put a spin on what the verses are saying literally. In other words, you will have to interpret the Bible. Interpretation, as you well know, is dangerous to your frame of reference because interpretation leads inexorably to relativism. True Believers (including you Mr. Graney), because they are absolutist , when faced with any evidence which contradicts their comfortable faith based prejudices withdraw into complete obscurantism. One cannot judge a person by what that person thinks of himself and one cannot judge the Bible by what the True Believers say it says!

Any literal interpretation of the Bible requires a rejection of logic, reason and three million years of constantly refined human observations of nature. Biblical literalist like Mr. Enderle and his pal Mr. Graney demand that every word written in the Bible is the “Truth” requiring, as human beings, the suspension of logic and thought. They tell us we must turn our backs on our capacity to reason and explain, to use our large brains to understand our world, as it really is, and not according to the preconceptions of ancient superstitious observers. It is our ability to think that constitutes our soul and gives us heart; it is reason that elevates us. Instead, at the dawn of the 21st century, the Biblical literalist, Mr. Enderle and his pal Mr. Graney, want us to transform ourselves into their image of the perfect man: emotional, irrational, and unthinking living organisms reacting to their environment according to a cluster of genetically programmed and unalterable instincts like termites in an termite colony . The Biblical literalist want us to be governed by faith and faith alone. If you simply believe, they tell us, you need never think again. Personally, I would rather celebrate life with the heart and soul of human being instead of reacting to life with the genetic programming of a termite.