There are all sorts of explanations for everything. However, the question remains as to what the significance of that explanation is. A lot of people look for “scientific” explanations as a way to displace religion. One needs to learn to read the various books of the Bible and understand the culture and language of the time is completely different to that of today. One must ask “How would the people of that time understood this text?”
My classical case-study is the Genesis creation story. We can distil it and understand the following points:
1.) God created the universe.
2.) Man sinned against God.
3.) Because of man’s sin, we have suffering.
And in the light of the New Testament we can add:
4.) Man needs salvation.
5.) Man needs a saviour.
6.) Jesus is the new Adam.
Like I said to the president of the Atheist League at my university:
One cannot read a translation of a 2,000-year old (or so) Greek text, take everything literally with a 21st century mindset and understand it. You need to remember that you’re reading a translation, which means that we are reading what the translator thinks that the text says. You also need to remember that the original text is anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 years old depending what you are reading, and that the people of that time would have understood what the author was trying to say. There would have been many cultural markers in the original language which would have provided the nuances of meaning. To take every single verse in the Bible literally is just sheer stupidity. Some books were of history, mythology, law, prayers, poetry, teaching, morality, wisdom, etc. It would be absurd to read a book of poetry or prayers as a history text, just as we would not read an encyclopaedia today as music.
Addenum (I didn’t say this on the day, but this is what I came up with upon reflection):
Which is why we need to approach the Bible using the Magesterium of the Universal Church in order to correctly interpret it’s meaning. It’s the same with any number of books. I can read a book of law, but I would need a lawyer in order to correctly interpret it in context with any other relevant laws.
His response was:
Yes, well that’s the problem there are so many interpretations isn’t there?
