This post is part of the January 16th God or Not blog carnival based on the topic of scriptural literalism to be held at Back of the Envelope:
I’m a theist who asserts that the stories of the Bible, that some say literally happened, did not. They are allegories intended to convey a deeper spiritual meaning. In this article I’ll interpret three examples of popular stories that are assumed to literal by many and I’ll conclude with a thought on why my “opposition”, atheists and theist who interpret the Bible literally, will presume, incorrectly, that I’m wrong.
Bible Stories
- Noah’s Ark and the story of the flood are not literally true despite the claims by some who found a splinter on a mountaintop and say it’s the Ark. Let’s review the story. God creates the world but doesn’t like how wicked and evil everyone, except Noah who lives in fellowship with God, is. God tells Noah to build an Ark and put two of every animal onboard. God floods the earth and destroys everything except Noah’s Ark. As the flood ends Noah makes a sacrifice to God and God makes a covenant to never again destroy the earth. So what does this mean? When we don’t live in fellowship with God we will figuratively be destroyed in the sense that we’ll be confused, suffer and live in fear of death. When we are in fellowship with God, but more specifically our immanent divinity (i.e. the soul), we can never be destroyed, as we know that our true nature is wise, loving, eternal and immortal. The duality that we are, as symbolized by two of every animal, becomes One. We let our redemptive divinity rise above our wicked humanity like a rainbow after a storm.
- Adam and Eve did not literally exist. Their story is an allegory for the creation of our divinity (i.e. the soul) and our human self (i.e. the personality). God created Adam, who symbolizes the soul, and Adam, since it was his rib, figuratively created Eve, who symbolizes the personality. This order, and the fact that Eve’s is intended as a companion for Adam, implies that Adam is suppose to be in charge. This has nothing to do with the relationships between men and women. It teaches us that we are to identify with our divinity and follow its intentions. What are the soul’s intentions? To become one with the personality so together they can grow in wisdom, express divinity and fulfill God’s plan. This intention was so strong that they were willing to eat the apple and figuratively die, which leads us to…
- Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross but did not literally rise again after three days. This death and resurrection story predates Jesus. Osiris, Adonis, Mythra and others were said to have died and rose again. So what does this mean? It symbolizes the death of the personality and the rise of the soul. We have a dual nature. We’re both human and divine. We are meant to grow in our spiritual understanding and awareness to realize that we are the soul who uses the personality to express itself in this world. We are not born with a conscious awareness of our spiritual self. The human self thinks that it’s suppose to be in charge of life and of course the result is suffering and confusion. Eventually we realize that there’s something more and that ideally this spiritual side should be in charge. Figuratively the personality dies and the soul rises. It’s important to stress however that the personality has to be strong. After all it is the agent of the soul in this world. The soul needs a healthy personality to bring its divinity into this world.
Why might these seem wrong to the “opposition” namely atheists or theists who take the Bible literally? Because, with all due respect, their ability to intuit (i.e. use their intuition to “think” abstractly) is not well developed. Both groups, but particularly the atheists, have a strong ability to think concretely. They approach all of this God stuff with a sharp mind and they try to “figure it out” with reason. This does not work! You use your body to act, your emotions to emote, your mind to think and your soul to intuit. The difference I’m making between thinking and intuiting is that thinking is reasoning and making sense of the things of this world while intuiting is abstract thinking and making sense of the divine world, namely the divine qualities of love, joy, wisdom, peace, beauty, harmony and goodwill. To be able to approach an understanding of God and the meaning of life you need to develop an ability to intuit abstract ideas. Without it it’s easy and reasonable to conclude that there is no God. With it you know that there is a God and that you are His child!
Cheers,
Brendan
P.S. Get an immediate download of your FREE copy of Enlightenment and the Meaning of Life by clicking here.
2 comments ↓
[…] In “Does God Have a Future” (the first of a three-part series), Deepak Chopra addresses the growth and problems of religious fundamentalism. What’s the basic problem? It’s the inability to reconcile the seeming differences between reason and faith. Deepak suggests that, “people have to find their way back to spirituality one person at a time” and, I would suggest, regular Carnival of Healing readers and hosts seem to be doing just that. I can attest to this individual search for spiritual understanding as nearly everyday someone types in Google something like “bible, literal, figurative” and comes to my article “Bible: Literal or Figurative?” […]
Wow, I’m so sorry to hear more people relying on their own wisdom for answers about God. Please stick to the Word of God. God’s Word is for everyone, not just people who have “the ability to intuit”. He loves us dumb people too.
The people in Job’s day had preconceived notions on the way God “must” be, because it made perfect sense in human wisdom. But God said they were wrong in Job 42:7. It’s dangerous to stray outside the Word of God. Job realized his error and said in Job 42.3 … “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. … 42:6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
Leave a Comment