Re: Glenns' Search For A Verse

Brian D Harper (bharper@postbox.acs.ohio-state.edu)
Thu, 17 Sep 1998 16:31:14 -0400

At 03:06 PM 9/16/98 -0700, Dario wrote:
>Brian D Harper wrote:
>
>> snip...
>> Why do you say the narrative was dictated?
>>
>
>There was nobody around to see it unfold. There are too many details
>that are described by somebody who was actually there seeing it all.
>
>What are the chances of a bedouin around 3500-4000 years ago sitting in
>the middle of the arabian desert and coming up with the sequence of
>events narrated in Genesis without the benefits of our current level of
>scientific knowledge? Specially if Genesis is compared with other
>narratives of how life came to be.
>

Thanks for the explanation. Just a couple of comments. First, there
seems to be a little bit of circular logic in your post. For example,
you seem to assume that the events should be interpreted as being
literally true and scientifically precise. If this were not the
case then your argument for dictation seems to crumble. Regardless
of this, your comment does support my original suspicion that
your inclination towards a literal interpretation of Genesis is
intimately tied to your view that the events were dictated. This is
not a criticism. If I were convinced that Genesis was dictated I
would be much more inclined to interpret it literally.

Secondly, and more importantly, you justified your view that the
narrative was dictated using your own logic and not from the
scriptures. I believe you indicated in your previous post that the
Bible is the best interpreter of the Bible? With this I agree
and also conclude that your view regarding dictation is merely
your opinion, it has no authority other than that. You are
welcome to your opinion, of course, but I hope you recognize
it as such and also recognize the critical nature of this
opinion regarding your interpretation of Genesis.

Brian Harper
Applied Mechanics
Ohio State University
214 Boyd Lab
155 W. Woodruff Ave
Columbus, OH 43210

"God forbid that we should give out a dream of
our own imagination for a pattern of the world"
-- Francis Bacon