Mythic Language
"All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible."
-William Faulkner
The bible speaks to us in mythic language. The bible does not speak to us in the language of reason. It presents the archetypal drama against a background of human experience. This is a point overlooked by both the literalist defender of holy writ and the debunker. It is a problem for the literalist who wants to see everything as historical fact. It’s a problem for the critic or debunker who likes to scour the texts for inconsistencies, citing lack of evidence for the existence of specific persons or proof that events occurred as depicted.
The bible presents a problematic image of an ineffable god who is believed to have no such image at all. We tally up his poor, abusive behavior and fail to see the truth in it. God shows up in the world as us. We are god and god is us. When we perceive the divine we do not perceive a transcendent mystical reality, rather we are looking at an inversion of our higher most self. The bible represents our dual spiritual nature by presenting us with a god that is both demiurge and benevolent savior.
Frankly, I would love to see all holy writ and sundry sacred texts put upon high shelves under lock and key for the next several generations. All sides are way too invested in their own versions of the story to regard the words with objectivity. Perhaps, after a period of time scholars might be able to bring these books out and look at them with fresh eyes.