Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheese
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*translation*
The "truth of the Bible" in Shades's use of the term is whatever it seems to mean in sofar as his modern conventions of language have understood it. That is, he interprets literature according to modernly conditioned sets of assumptions, and imposes these upon ancient literary works that do no necessarily hold to the same rules or conditions. I used an example of how this works out in an earlier post in the development of human sexuality, and our understanding of its purpose and function over the past several thousand years. Perhaps a better example in this case is unpacking the historical meaning and development of the concept of religion. If you are keen to play along (or if anyone is, for that matter), how would you define religion?
Once you have defined it, let us then look at the implications of this definition in another cultural or historical context, and see what we understand ancient religion to be. Then, we shall see how different our own ideas about what religion is has dramatically obscured our own understanding of what religion meant for the ancients...