A few months ago I had an interesting discussion with a Christian. We argued for hours whether it makes sense to take the bible literally or understand it as a metaphor. Her point was that if you treat it as a metaphor you can basically forget it anyway because it can be interpreted somewhat randomly. It would loose its worth as a compass to guide you through life.
I answered that it’s not possible to take it literally since there are conflicting passages. Somewhere it says that we were formed after the picture of God and that our goal is to become more God-like. Take the Ten Commandments. Thou shall not kill. But God kills all the time. Now if I follow this commandment I don’t become like God. What shall I do?
We didn’t even agree whether there are eternal values which are true all the time. This made me think about my own values. One of the things I really believe in are human rights. For me there are no exceptions but I have to accept the fact that sometimes even basic human rights have to be broken in order to prevent disaster. The moment I believe something to be completely true (which means free of all contradictions) I expose it. Now the moment somebody finds a contradiction the whole idea is invalidated and it implodes leaving nothing but scattered pieces.
Well that’s life without the boredom of paradise.
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