Do You Think The Bible is Literal or Allegorical

[TheBear]

I would like your source for this please.

The Guide for the Perplexed 2:17

[~StarBright~]

Hi everyone!

I quite like discussions such as these- The Bear- i find myself very interested in your point of view, i am someone who has not really quite decided what i exactly beleive in, so i love reading difffernet perspectives on things- thank you for your inputs and ideas!

I guess the input i would like to contribute is that i can accept that neither creation- nor evolution can be "proven"- so i therefore feel that BOTH of these "theories" should be taught with the same idea- that we DONT REALLY KNOW 100%-(although im sorry- but i must admit i see more evidence of evolution in the world than i see of religious beleif- at least scietist dont try anfd kill eachother when they disagree- they see it as a good thing and try to learn from eachother's mistakes and discoveries)

i will agree that i am not religious and therefore i dont really think i would appriciate my son being taught at school that "g-d created the world" as its not something i 100% agree with- i would accept however him being taught that some people in the world beleive that "g-d created the world- and this is why....." go on to explain the bible etc and that SOME other people in the world beleive that this other thing happened...... go on to explain big bang theory evolution etc.

And just to throw another thing in- not really sure how it relates- but i have alway had a problem figuring out how different races of people are all children of Adam and Eve... how did the aboriginal people or the african american people fit in that theory?????? Can anyone answer that one for me?

[butterfly_warrior]

I have read an explanation as to how we ended up with different skin tones dominating in different areas, but it is somewhat lengthy and I don't have time to go through it while working. Just posting to remind myself to sort it out later tonight.

BW

[Heaven]

Genesis 11

The Tower of Babel

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

So...people of different languages formed their own 'groups' in different places in the world. Therefore, the gene pool was much smaller in these little groups as they didn't have the entire population to mix with and certain physical features were emphasised in different groups. Just like in a family, everyone has similar features. And as time went on they became more distinct. I'm very scientific aren't I?? lol. Anyway, that's the view I agree with.

[~StarBright~]

thank you!!

[Bathsheba]

Literal or allegorical... I'm not sure... but I DO know that when my teenage DD acts as if she "knows it all" it really bemuses me Sometimes I think God must feel similarly "Mankind, I love you, but geeze.... maybe you'll only trust and believe in me when you find out the hard way???"

[butterfly_warrior]

Ok, now that I'm home from work...

The basis of things is the Tower of Babel as SaraJane posted, however, to get a bit more scientific about things...

Consider what happens when people of different races have children - eventually everyone ends up the same sort of caramel colour. This is apparently how people started out.

After the Tower of Babel when the different language groups separated to different areas (things aren't necessarily all that peaceful when you can't communicate well with your neighbours!), people ended up in different areas with different climates and tended to find that different features were more suitable to surviving there.

For example - dark skinned people were more able to survive in the hot regions around the equator as their skin was more resistant to burning, etc. Those with fairer skin tended to not do so well and eventually died out, while the darker skinned people thrived. Eventually that particular people group loses the genetic information for the fairer skin tones and people become quite dark.

In colder climates with little sun, dark skinned people weren't as able to get vitamin D from the sunlight, while those with fairer skin did fine. As a consequence, in those areas the lighter skinned people thrived and the people group eventually lost the genetic information for the darker skin tones.

Other features tended to dominate in different areas through the method that SaraJane outlined.

The genetics of skin tone is actually fairly complicated... but a bit of an example of how this sort of thing can happen can be seen with the twins born in the UK. The parents of the twins each had one black and one white parent. The parents themselves were a light brown colour... one twin was born very dark, the other was born very fair. Originally, this sort of variation in skin colour of siblings would be quite common, but as the people groups separated, it became less and less common and various different skin colours tended to dominate in particular areas.

It's a rough guide to how it happened - I know it doesn't necessarily explain how the darker-skinned eskimoes are able to thrive in an Arctic environment, but they obviously have other physical features which allow them to survive and thrive there while others of us wouldn't cope at all.

I hope that makes sense - I'm quite tired and haven't had the time to dig out the book and look over everything again.

Bath - love your way of looking at things there! I'm often struck when reading the bible how God's relationship with his people has changed. You can see that in the beginning they were very dependent on God for everything, progressing right through to the rebellious teenager stage, through to treating us in a more "adult" manner... although some days I'm struck quite firmly with the image that the majority of humanity hasn't actually moved out of "rebellious teenager". A reflection of the growth in maturity of humanity itself, if you like.

BW