Re: [asa] Re: Slug

>
> Iain Strachan wrote:
>
> >Glenn, I think you rather missed the point of my Wilfred Owen poem
> illustration by dismissing it as "a poem", the implication
> > being that you can get away with porkies in a poem, but if it's not a
> poem
> then it's history and you must tell the truth.
>
> Well of course you can get away with porkies in poems. That is the whole
> reason people want Genesis 1-9 to be a poem. It is believed that there are
> lots of scientific porkies in the Genesis account so by making it a poem
> absolves the Divine from breaking His 9th commandment and saying that the
> plants were created before the sun. If one can't get away with porkies
> in
> poems, then the only other conclusion is that the Divine being who somehow
> inspired the Bible didn't know what he was talking about and that
> conclusion
> has certain implications people don't want to accept. Thus, Genesis 1-9
> MUST
> be a poem which can tell porkies.

Glenn, I think you perhaps missed the deliberate irony in my choice of the
word "porkies". I'm sorry to have allowed my rather too British sense of
humour to obscure the point I was making. I do not think that "metaphor" =
"porky". If I say someone has green fingers, then I'm not telling a lie,
though sure as anything I've never seen anyone who actually had green
fingers (well .. maybe on Star Trek but that doesn't count..) Or if you say
"The view of the White House is .." it doesn't mean that a building
literally has an opinion. It's simply not the case that only in poetry can
you get away with metaphors that aren't literally true.

Iain wrote:
>
> >You seem to be fond of accusing everyone else on here of thinking like a
> YEC. I think YOU are thinking like a YEC here.
> >I've heard many a YEC say Genesis 1 is history because it's not a
> poem. I
> say it is a poem, but not one in verse. Like a
> >"prose poem", of which there are many modern examples, notably by
> Alexander
> Solzhenitsyn.
>
> Correction, acting like a YEC, there is a difference between that and
> thinking like a YEC. YECs don't answer questions when the questions get
> too
> hard. Thinking like a YEC is an entirely different thing. So, lets get
> the
> accusation correct.
>
> Secondly, I would note that you don't like anyone on your side having the
> YEC like behavior tossed around.

No, Glenn, what I don't like is your saying untrue things about me that you
can't justify. Where did I say I did't like anyone "on my side" (an
unnecessarily confrontational term) having the YEC like behaviour tossed
around? This is the second time in successive posts you've twisted what I've
said, and it's the last time it will happen, because I'm withdrawing from
this debate. I've done my level best to grapple honestly and civilly with
the valid points that you raise, and I get paid back with tirades and
complete misrepresentation of my views.

I'm truly sorry if I offended you by comparing your way of thinking to a
YEC, but I did it in a very specific sense that you can't deny. Both you
and YEC's that I have spoken to insist that Genesis 1 is not a poem and must
therefore be history. I've already explained why I don't think this is
valid, and don't see the need to repeat myself.

Goodbye.

Iain

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Received on Sat Jun 17 01:58:25 2006