Genesis is freaking crazy.
- Talking snakes...with legs
- guys being made out of dirt
- women being made out of bones
- the only people on the planet suddenly founding a city
- mysterious wives who just kinda show up
- people living nearly 1000 years
And what's up with angels having sex with the 'hot chicks' and having herculean/superheros for babies? Is there really any other way to interpret Gen 6: 1, 2 & 4? I think not!
And this is all just from the first few chapters.
My point is; if we're honest, there are a lot of things in the Bible that seem strange. We can't just gloss over them and pretend they're not there. Because people really do have problems with it.
These really are stumbling blocks for people, LOTS of people.
How do we reconcile them with our faith, today?
Do we smash everything together like groups such as ""Answers in Genesis" do and have Noah putting T-Rex onto the ark?
Sorry, but I don't think it should be a pre-requisite to believe in The Flintstones to believe in Jesus.
To me, I think we have to realize that every story that seems crazy has a nugget of truth buried in it.
There's a reason every religion has a flood story that is remarkably similar to Noah & the Ark...maybe something like it actually happened?
Maybe the nugget of truth we find in Adam & Eve, is that God's crowning achievement of creation is humanity. Is it so hard to see the love that he poured into everything that he created as if he were composing a symphony? And then to see it crescendo as he forms man out of clay and breathes life into him!
When you look at the Bible as a textbook, you have to scratch your head...and sometimes, you walk away.
When you look at it as art, as poetry, as story...well, to me it starts to make more sense.
I can worry about the function of the stories instead of the form. It allows me to go after that nugget of truth. It let's me examine what God would hope we would glean from it.
If God is love, if that is his very essence, then that is the point of the Bible as well.
The point isn't to try to debunk a fossil record by adding up the years that we have listed in ancient genealogies.
