[quote=“Optrader, post:36, topic:240105”]
I read your opinion that fundamentalists have really messed things up. I have been here since 2008 and I know you have been here even longer. In all the years we have gone back and forth, I haves never believed you are mean spirited, quite the opposite in fact. I think you are one of the kindest souls in this forum, but honestly I thought that comment was thoughtless. Not as in rude, but literally made without thought. [/quote]
It was made not only with thought, but with experience. One quarter of the American population believe the entire Bible should be taken literally. This is not a problem for people of deep faith because they take all the lessons to heart as well.
On the other hand, there are those who cannot take every story literally and it is a great stumbling stone to them taking in the lessons. For example, since they cannot believe in a literal seven-day creation, a young earth, or a planet wide flood, they toss the entire book, thinking if the book is so wrong about the age of the earth and a planet wide flood, it must be wrong about everything.
I am passionate about explaining the lessons and showing how in the original Hebrew (or Greek or Latin) the original authors were making points that get lost in the English translation, especially as definitions of many English words have evolved over time. In the English translations, many believe the God of the Old Testament comes across as cruel and temperamental. This is precisely why I recommend scholarly rabbis whose first language is Hebrew should be teaching the Old Testament to everyone. They can bridge the chasms between how a story comes across in Hebrew versus how it comes across in modern English.
