new ideas

[insanetimbo]

Following a number of conversations I've had recently about Christian morality and whether biblical law/morality/ideals apply today, i wrote this little response (specifically to a question Evilel wrote here). So it sorta follows on from my little 'Repression vs Self-control' rant the other day. There needs to be a third one as well which i'll get to

Comments

Cheers for that

[anonymous]

Wil here- thank you so much for that- totally awesome to read. Excellent and evidently learned interpretation of a highly complex text.

However, whilst I agree with most of what you say, I also like to apply a highly positivist perspective on the text. As an optimist, I see the Bible as ultra-functional. What it does is twofold I think.

1) It acts as an invaluable historical text- through which we can understand that which has developed before us- and how a multitude of races over a multitude of millennia has struggled but always succeeded in advancing in every possible facet of human development. Hence I find it a wonderfully and overwhelmingly optimistic text, and I deem the overall and highly pervasive prophecy of it to be that upward development is not only possible and achievable but that it has and will be achieved. This prophecy is actually self-fulfilling- I mean, just see how the framework for human development Christianity has provided has pushed civilisation [very, very far]- and it takes an ultra-pessimist to doubt such an assertion.

2) The second factor relates to what I mentioned just before: that it provides a pragmatic framework through which humanity can progress extensively. This does not mean that the framework is universal in terms of space or time. In fact, as time goes on, the framework is getting less relevant, but the historical-text-function is getting more and more important. Not that I think the bible's framework is obsolete by any means, but, taken literally, it is slightly less applicable nowadays. Certainly it can be re-interpreted and adapted- in fact, I really cannot understand why there haven’t been any more books added to it since. There's plenty of quality writing out there that is equal to, if not superior too, much of the stuff in the bible!

Anyhow, this is, as usual, a mere introduction to my thoughts, I hope you consider them and respond to them too. Have an exceptional day...