Re: Public Nudity: Innocent or Sin?

On Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:41:14 -0000, "David Looser"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>"Stuffed Tiger" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
...
>> My point, as backed up by my reference, is that the author NEVER
>> intended that the answer to your question would be a real snake that
>> talked, or a real tree that grew in a real garden, EVEN IF there was
>> at some point in History a real snake, tree and garden involved.
>>
>>
>I'm sure he didn't, so what? What DID he intend it to signify?, I don't 
>know, you don't know, Micheal Sacasas doesn't know, nobody does. We don't 
>know who wrote this story, or when. We don't know what he intended it to 
>signify to it's readership. 
...

Yeah, yeah. The same could be said for Hamlet. Irrelevant.

First of all, there is a lot that is known with reasonable certainty,
such as the narrow time period in which it was written, the class of
person who could have written it (few could read and write), the
knowledge level of the people it was written for, ... and so on.

That tells us much. For example, these people had no concept of the
size and scale of the Earth, let alone the Solar System. Universe?
Cosmos? None of that can be part of what the author intended to be
understood by the people it was written for. For sure. 

That means it is silly for Christians to try and force science into it
or anybody to criticize it for that lack. Even if the authors knew the
science, nobody would have understood or listened to it. Heck, it's
hard to get people today not to turn off when they hear science.

Secondly, there are certain aspects of BOTH Genesis 1 and 2 that stand
out. For example, that there is good and evil, that men and women are
capable of good and evil and of choosing evil over good, that good is
what God asks us to do and evil is what separates us from God, and
that if we choose evil over good, not only do we get to live with it,
but so do our children. 

Sure one might quibble a bit. So what? These are rather universal, and
somewhat obvious. Not a bad way to start IMHO, as long as you spice it
up with a little drama so you don't loose your audience.