Letters to the Editor
-
The Irony is the Jews whose Creation Tale this is don't take it literly
The real irony in the Christian movement to proclaim that the Old Testament is literally true is that the original owners of this book, the Jews do not believe that it is the literal word of god. I was raised Jewish and was sent to an Orthodox Day school where I spent half of my day in religious study. I was taught that the Old Testament was written by men who were inspired by the voice of God. Since they were imperfect and unsophisticated, they had a lot of trouble explaining things accurately and were in many cases reduced to writing allegorical tales in their attempt to document Gods word. The most complex subject that they tackled was how the earth was created and the resulting tale is a gross implication of a very difficult and complex undertaking. I understand that there are tiny sects that do take the book literally, but most Jews prefer to analysis the Bible and try to see how it fits in with current scientific explanations. Their position is that Science helps correct our interpretation of the Bible, rather then threatens our religious beliefs. For example, since the Old Testament says that day and night were not created until the forth day, there is no way to know what amount of time is represented by the first four days, an interpretation made famous in The Scopes Monkey. I find it odd that late adopters of the Old Testament, Christians, have decided to take something as literally true when the original followers of the tale do not.