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Well, I don't know for sure that I'm right about that. But: take the garden of eden story. It's a metaphor for coming of age. They realize they are naked. Th

Well, I don't know for sure that I'm right about that. But: take the garden of eden story. It's a metaphor for coming of age. They realize they are naked. They are expelled from the garden (childhood) and must go out into the world where they face toil and hardship. They eat the forbidden fruit (sex). I think it's pretty clearly a parable. Take Noah's ark. Noah plans and looks towards the future and toils when everyone else is being lazy and is therefore safe when everyone else gets drowned, despite being laughed at and dismissed. It's a similar story to the grasshopper and the ant. Seems like a parable to me. If you're out hunting in the middle east for an apple core or scouting mount ararat for mummified timbers, or trying to add up how many days ago was the exact day of creation, you're clearly missing the point of both stories. There's a reason these stories continue to resonate centuries later, but I don't think it has anything to do with whether they are literally true.

spywaregorilla 4y ago
> Well, I don't know for sure that I'm right about that. But: take the garden of eden story. It's a metaphor for coming of age. They realize they are naked. They are expelled from the garden (childhood) and must go out into the world where they face toil and hardship. They eat the forbidden fruit (sex). I think it's pretty clearly a parable. This interpretation may have merit if it were a book written today, but it seems very unlikely to have been the intended one for the mid -100's BC audience as it wouldn't match the coming of age experience for children of that time. Children would be expected to know of sex very quickly. The Bible is also pretty clearly pro-sex for husbands and wives. The important takeaway of this story is, imo, that life is hard because people were bad. The texts also reference specific rivers, placing the garden of eden somewhere in the ballpark of modern day Iraq. And much of the aesthetics like the garden itself may simply be a rehash of Mesopotamian mythology > Take Noah's ark. Noah plans and looks towards the future and toils when everyone else is being lazy and is therefore safe when everyone else gets drowned, despite being laughed at and dismissed. It's a similar story to the grasshopper and the ant. So old testament noah lived for almost a thousand years, and spent a couple hundred of them preparing for the flood, being told what to do by God or angels. He wasn't looking toward the future, he was exclusively told by god that the flood was coming. Other people weren't lazy, they just didn't believe him. Bonus: When he gets off the boat, he feels bad and asks why god was such a dick, and god tells him that if he had asked for mercy in the first place, god wouldn't have destroyed the world, so it's noah's fault. And noah agrees. > There's a reason these stories continue to resonate centuries later, but I don't think it has anything to do with whether they are literally true. I think it has a lot to do with influential community leaders telling you have to literally believe in the texts.

spywaregorilla 4y ago

> Well, I don't know for sure that I'm right about that. But: take the garden of eden story. It's a metaphor for coming of age. They realize they are naked. They are expelled from the garden (childhood) and must go out into the world where they face toil and hardship. They eat the forbidden fruit (sex). I think it's pretty clearly a parable. This interpretation may have merit if it were a book written today, but it seems very unlikely to have been the intended one for the mid -100's BC audience as it wouldn't match the coming of age experience for children of that time. Children would be expected to know of sex very quickly. The Bible is also pretty clearly pro-sex for husbands and wives. The important takeaway of this story is, imo, that life is hard because people were bad. The texts also reference specific rivers, placing the garden of eden somewhere in the ballpark of modern day Iraq. And much of the aesthetics like the garden itself may simply be a rehash of Mesopotamian mythology > Take Noah's ark. Noah plans and looks towards the future and toils when everyone else is being lazy and is therefore safe when everyone else gets drowned, despite being laughed at and dismissed. It's a similar story to the grasshopper and the ant. So old testament noah lived for almost a thousand years, and spent a couple hundred of them preparing for the flood, being told what to do by God or angels. He wasn't looking toward the future, he was exclusively told by god that the flood was coming. Other people weren't lazy, they just didn't believe him. Bonus: When he gets off the boat, he feels bad and asks why god was such a dick, and god tells him that if he had asked for mercy in the first place, god wouldn't have destroyed the world, so it's noah's fault. And noah agrees. > There's a reason these stories continue to resonate centuries later, but I don't think it has anything to do with whether they are literally true. I think it has a lot to do with influential community leaders telling you have to literally believe in the texts.