My strongest reason for opposing these misleading claims about Biblical literalism and inerrancy is that they are a fast track to atheism. Many preachers say one must choose: \u201cEither the Bible is the perfect, inerrant word of God, or it is a load of garbage and should be thrown out\u201d. This sets up anyone who decides to study the Bible seriously and has been told this to either pretend the problems aren\u2019t there, and thus compromise on honesty, or to do what they were told and throw out the Bible. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.<\/p>\n
What happens if one tries to take various Biblical stories literally has been demonstrated more than once. Noah\u2019s ark<\/a> and the Exodus<\/a> are but a couple of examples.<\/p>\n So, if you really want to encourage rather than discourage people from believing in God, then I\u2019d drop the rhetoric of inerrancy and literalism. It is not only dishonest, it is spiritually toxic.<\/p>\n Personally, I am fundamentally (if you\u2019ll excuse the pun) convinced that there are no genuine Biblical literalists in the world today \u2013 not even Ned Flanders on the Simpsons, who on the brillian episode \u201cHurricane Neddy\u201d famously claimed \u201cI\u2019ve done everything the Bible says \u2013 even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff\u201d. No one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-4473215556698754742?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\")