"The one thing I wish Nye had not left out, has to do with why modern science so completely ignores God and supernaturalism in general when striving to explain natural phenomena. In science, interpretations and explanations are deemed credible according to their predictive capacity and how much mystery and fearful bewilderment they eliminate."
My question to you Professor Patterson is why would we leave it to scientists to determine correct Biblical exegesis? Why assume Genesis, for example, does not contain any science, just because scientists say so? There is science in the fall of Adam and Eve, which records the transition from instinct to learned behavior, a very simple deduction to make when you consider that Jesus "wrote the Law on his heart." (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The scientific way of saying "write the law on your heart" is to "make your learned behavior intuitive." Scientists cannot make that connection because they don't understand what it is "to write the Law on your heart." But you know, and now you know how to return from the Fall. Abraham abandons infanticide and becomes a pronatalist. Jacob adopts assortative mating for intelligence when he prefers Rachel over "dull-eyed" Leah. As proof that Jacob practices eugenics (not dygenics) the Genesis author depicts Rachel's son Joseph rising from the bottom of a well to become counselor to the pharaoh while all of "dull-eyed" Leah's sons make bad choices (cataloged in Jacob's blesses and curses in chapter 49).
J.D. Crossan spoke of a life tradition and a death tradition in the Birth of Christianity. The kingdom of God on earth was the life tradition and the one in heaven for the resurrected body was the death tradition. Has the life tradition and its practices and benefits been plumbed to its depths? Is the death tradition allegorical? Is its message hidden as priestly allegories are hidden in Genesis? There is a lot of work for Biblical Studies to tackle. Does the ancient nature and persistence of priestly communities indicate the relevance of the Torah? God promises life and these orthodox Jewish communities have had life for thousands of years. Isn't the secret to everlasting life the domain of Biblical studies?
Don't be fooled by scientists. They do not have billions of followers to lead to eternal life, they are not bound to lead people to the kingdom of God be it in heaven or on earth, it is not their domain, so they don't bother plumbing the depths of the allegories. They have not plumbed the depths of religion and so their critique is necessarily shallow and in their eyes, conclusive, but their scope is narrow. It is the job of Biblical Studies to determine religion's affect on Darwinian survival, an aspect of Crossan's life tradition.
" You shall observe my institutions and my laws: the man who keeps them shall have life through them. I am the Lord." Lev.:18, 1-5
Stop and consider the italicized words above, perhaps for the first time:
“The man who keeps them shall have life through them.” God is speaking of the Levitical prohibitions. Lev 18:19-24
He will have life for himself and his descendants, each life a link in a chain of endless life. Strictly observing the sexual prohibitions of Leviticus in a barbaric tribal environment ensured your survival, and not simply your innocence. The prohibitions were a vital hedge against total conquest and extinction. Attacking an enemy tribe’s reproductive capacity was a strategy of ancient warfare. If you were a nomad, you scattered your tribe’s communities so they wouldn’t compete with one another and couldn’t all be killed in one fell swoop (see Genesis 13:1-12), and you kept your birth rates high to replace those of you who were murdered, castrated, and enslaved (see Exodus 1:7-8)."
That is a sample of Darwinian exegesis. It is simple and straightforward. I have a page on academia.edu. I am followed by many theologians,
faculty, emeritus, and anthropologists from all over the world. One of my papers on Sodom and Gomorrah is recommended by a philologist alumna of the Sorbonne in Paris.
I tell you, Biblical Studies will grow as soon as you apply some basic Darwinian exegesis and expand your scope to the earlier religions that left their legacy in yours. Only in that context will you come to appreciate what you have and lead your billions of followers to salvation. Get the scientists out of your way, expand your scope and the students will come to you. I am home schooled and do not have half the mental capacity of the least of you. Look what I have done with a Darwinian perspective. In fact, Darwin led me to the greatest discovery I will ever make. He was a lapsed seminarian who abandoned God when his daughter died, but in On the Origin of Species, first chapter Variation under Domestication, in the section Principles of Selection Anciently Followed and their Effects, he writes:
“From passages in Genesis, it is clear that the colour of domestic animals was at that early period attended to.”
It was Darwin himself who left us the key to Darwinian exegesis of the Torah.
How can we go wrong?
"The one thing I wish Nye had not left out, has to do with why modern science so completely ignores God and supernaturalism in general when striving to explain natural phenomena. In science, interpretations and explanations are deemed credible according to their predictive capacity and how much mystery and fearful bewilderment they eliminate."
My question to you Professor Patterson is why would we leave it to scientists to determine correct Biblical exegesis? Why assume Genesis, for example, does not contain any science, just because scientists say so? There is science in the fall of Adam and Eve, which records the transition from instinct to learned behavior, a very simple deduction to make when you consider that Jesus "wrote the Law on his heart." (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The scientific way of saying "write the law on your heart" is to "make your learned behavior intuitive." Scientists cannot make that connection because they don't understand what it is "to write the Law on your heart." But you know, and now you know how to return from the Fall. Abraham abandons infanticide and becomes a pronatalist. Jacob adopts assortative mating for intelligence when he prefers Rachel over "dull-eyed" Leah. As proof that Jacob practices eugenics (not dygenics) the Genesis author depicts Rachel's son Joseph rising from the bottom of a well to become counselor to the pharaoh while all of "dull-eyed" Leah's sons make bad choices (cataloged in Jacob's blesses and curses in chapter 49).
J.D. Crossan spoke of a life tradition and a death tradition in the Birth of Christianity. The kingdom of God on earth was the life tradition and the one in heaven for the resurrected body was the death tradition. Has the life tradition and its practices and benefits been plumbed to its depths? Is the death tradition allegorical? Is its message hidden as priestly allegories are hidden in Genesis? There is a lot of work for Biblical Studies to tackle. Does the ancient nature and persistence of priestly communities indicate the relevance of the Torah? God promises life and these orthodox Jewish communities have had life for thousands of years. Isn't the secret to everlasting life the domain of Biblical studies?
Don't be fooled by scientists. They do not have billions of followers to lead to eternal life, they are not bound to lead people to the kingdom of God be it in heaven or on earth, it is not their domain, so they don't bother plumbing the depths of the allegories. They have not plumbed the depths of religion and so their critique is necessarily shallow and in their eyes, conclusive, but their scope is narrow. It is the job of Biblical Studies to determine religion's affect on Darwinian survival, an aspect of Crossan's life tradition.
" You shall observe my institutions and my laws: the man who keeps them shall have life through them. I am the Lord." Lev.:18, 1-5
Stop and consider the italicized words above, perhaps for the first time:
“The man who keeps them shall have life through them.” God is speaking of the Levitical prohibitions. Lev 18:19-24
He will have life for himself and his descendants, each life a link in a chain of endless life. Strictly observing the sexual prohibitions of Leviticus in a barbaric tribal environment ensured your survival, and not simply your innocence. The prohibitions were a vital hedge against total conquest and extinction. Attacking an enemy tribe’s reproductive capacity was a strategy of ancient warfare. If you were a nomad, you scattered your tribe’s communities so they wouldn’t compete with one another and couldn’t all be killed in one fell swoop (see Genesis 13:1-12), and you kept your birth rates high to replace those of you who were murdered, castrated, and enslaved (see Exodus 1:7-8)."
That is a sample of Darwinian exegesis. It is simple and straightforward. I have a page on academia.edu. I am followed by many theologians,
faculty, emeritus, and anthropologists from all over the world. One of my papers on Sodom and Gomorrah is recommended by a philologist alumna of the Sorbonne in Paris.
I tell you, Biblical Studies will grow as soon as you apply some basic Darwinian exegesis and expand your scope to the earlier religions that left their legacy in yours. Only in that context will you come to appreciate what you have and lead your billions of followers to salvation. Get the scientists out of your way, expand your scope and the students will come to you. I am home schooled and do not have half the mental capacity of the least of you. Look what I have done with a Darwinian perspective. In fact, Darwin led me to the greatest discovery I will ever make. He was a lapsed seminarian who abandoned God when his daughter died, but in On the Origin of Species, first chapter Variation under Domestication, in the section Principles of Selection Anciently Followed and their Effects, he writes:
“From passages in Genesis, it is clear that the colour of domestic animals was at that early period attended to.”
It was Darwin himself who left us the key to Darwinian exegesis of the Torah.
How can we go wrong?