Are You Religious?

[BitBuster]

So, as you can see, we don't know anything about anything.

Precisely what I've been arguing throughout this whole thread.

Anyway, I don't see it as "cherry-picking", just run-of-the-mill skepticism.

Then why not be skeptical of the whole thing? Usually, if you find that someone's wrong about a great many things, you tend to doubt the veracity of their claims in related areas. This, of course, doesn't prove or even necessarily suggest that EVERYTHING they're saying is wrong, but it does imply that you shouldn't blindly accept what they say in other areas simply because there's no obvious logical flaw.

There's some evidence that the first six books were edited anyway, so maybe the redacted pieces were more interesting?

Is this supposed to be a guide for life, a history text, or entertainment? If it's the latter, I can see your point, but if it's either of the first two, I would prefer the text without any human editing, thank you very much.

Even the stuff that's left in (like the references to genetic engineering and inter-species reproduction) is kinda weird, so no, I don't take it all literally.

So when Moses said not to kill...was he just being figurative?

It's not that there COULDN'T have been a Tower of Babel, (there probably was some tower) but that doesn't mean that's where languages came from.

It's not that there COULDN'T have been a God who shaped Eve from Adam's rib, but that doesn't mean that's where humans came from...once you've accepted that there was this guy who was the son of God who died and was raised from the dead, you really can't say, "Well, that whole Tower of Babel thing sort of seems improbable...perhaps it's figurative."

Believing that there's a literal angel with a flaming sword guarding Eden is fine, if you want to believe that. I find it more logically satisfying to believe that Eden is under water near the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates. It's not that it didn't exist, it's just that the version we have of the story is not necessarily a technically accurate description of exactly what happened.

Maybe Jesus didn't actually die. Maybe he faked his death. Or maybe he had a twin that was kept in hiding for 33 years and then wheeled out when he was needed.

We weren't there, and we don't know what happened.

Exactly.

More importantly, in my view, it DOESN'T MATTER what's literal and what's allegorical. The point is the lesson, or the moral, or the point, of the story. This is just like the if-then statements being true or false even if you don't know the truth of the if or the then.

See, I'd argue that it DOES matter. There's more to the Bible than just "oh, do unto others." And some of the "lessons" are somewhat dubious. The Tower Of Babel story, for instance, basically seems to guard against hubris and technological advancement. Well, where would we be now without those things?

BTW, I'm interested in hearing how you interpret the whole "before this generation perishes" thing.

Should you be nice to other people? YES. Should you raise your children to be decent? YES. Should you steal? NO. These things are not dependent on Hebrew letters on some rocks, they are universal.

...so why do we need the Bible?

Too often I'm too coy, trying to play Socrates. I'm no Socrates.

That's a good thing, from my POV.

Forget Socrates; the Sophists were where it was at!