‘I don’t want to believe in a fairy tale!’
Posted by: dana on: July 31, 2007
Ever heard of The God Squad? A priest and a rabbi — Msgr. Thomas Hartman and Rabbi Marc Gellman — pair up give advice on all things religious. This letter recently appeared in their column. Their response follows in blue:
You once said that not everything in the Bible is true, that certain things are more like stories with morals to warn us of doing evil. If that’s true, how do I know what to believe that is in the Bible, and what not to believe? I don’t want to believe in a fairy tale! I’m confused!
- Anonymous, Beaumont, Texas
We believe that everything in the Bible is true. We do not believe that everything in the Bible actually occurred. The snake in the Garden of Eden or the donkey Balaam was riding almost certainly did not talk. Rather, what we learn from the story of Eden is that we are given a choice between good and evil, and sometimes evil is quite seductive.
What we learn from Balaam is that curses can be turned into blessings if we listen to God’s voice within us. These are true lessons from a true Bible that includes talking animals that are not true.
Of course, some things described in the Bible are both true and did indeed occur. Different faith traditions have different beliefs about which things actually happened, and this accounts for the different ways we love the Bible. It is, of course, the deep and abiding moral and spiritual truths of biblical stories that account for why we love the Bible at all.
While I have always felt this to be true, I still get an apprehensive tight feeling in my stomach after reading this letter. I can hear wild-eyed, charismatics screaming in my ear that the Bible is infallible and that to not believe a snake literally spoke is to doubt God Himself.
But really, when did the word “infallible” come to mean “literal?” Yes, as a believer in an almighty, all-powerful God, I believe anything can happen, but does that mean it did happen?
And what difference does it make so long as the message that needed to be taught gets across? Isn’t believing in Truths more important than believeing a story demonstrating that Truth?
That’s why I find this response from Hartman and Gellman compelling. Does it really ultimately matter whether or not the snake actually spoke in the Garden of Eden, so long as people learn from the story? What do you think?
6 Responses to "‘I don’t want to believe in a fairy tale!’"
July 31, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Wow. That’s a tough question. I tend to agree with The God Squad. Though, I like how they say “almost certainly”… because I know that anything in the Bible COULD have happened. (God is GOD and HE can make anything happen-even talking animals- if He wanted to.)
As far as Jaclyn’s question, I guess you can compare it to the historical evidence. (I’m no expert) but I believe in Case for Christ it talks about the existence of Christ, his death and his sightings after his resurrection and the evidence that backs it up.
I guess it would be hard to KNOW what you are supposed to take figuratively or to take literally. But I think in the resurrection’s case, because you have 4 books of the Bible (not to mention any other existing historical references) that tell the same story that it’s probably not a figurative story meant to only teach a lesson…
But those are just my thoughts on it.
July 31, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Interesting. I consider myself very faithful, even if I’m all messed up on my dogma. I guess, for me, the fact that faith exists is more important than the how or the why. Does it matter if Jesus really, truly rose from the dead? Probably, to some. Probably not, to others. Is it a bad thing to say, “I believe he rose from the dead, literally, if he did. If he didn’t, then I believe it’s symbolic for his spirit being everlasting”?
At a writer’s conference, the publisher of James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces” recently took on Oprah for going off on the author for embellishing on his memoir (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/073007gltalese.26b1b7f.html) sometime last year or whenever it was. She said something at the conference that might be applicable here:
“Oprah kept saying, ‘Did she kill herself? Did she cut her wrists?’ And he said, ‘No, she hung herself.’ And the whole audience went, ‘Boo! Boo!’ It was like being in the Roman circus. And after I said to them, ‘The tragedy is not how she killed herself, it’s that she killed herself’ …”
Essentially, it boils down to a tongue-in-cheek favorite mantra for journalists: Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. In the case of the Bible and raising from the dead … maybe that’s actually true.
Gawd, do I sound like an absolute atheist? I don’t mean to. I very much believe in God. I just struggle on the details and am thinking out loud as to where I actually stand on those details. (There you go, Dana; now I’ve taken over one of your blogs 
)
August 1, 2007 at 9:43 am
I tend to believe that the birth, death, resurrection actually happened…that it was more than Jesus’ spirit, because later, in addition to the resurrection, after the ascension, His Spirit is sent among the people. It’s one of the stories where I think the actions of the story are as important as the moral, and I like some of Rosie’s points. I’ll have to reread my “Case for Christ.”
However, I am intrigued by your stance, Jaclyn. So what you’re saying is, you have absolute faith that God is speaking to us through the story of Jesus and put your faith in that story. But if you got a time machine and whizzed back and discovered Jesus was never physically resurrected, your faith in that story would not be shaken because you would continue to trust that God must have just meant it a different way and we misinterpreted the story.
Correct me if I have mispegged you.
I find this fascinating. I think most Christians’ faith would be utterly crushed by such a discovery and that your views put an immense trust in God’s control, which is awesome.
August 1, 2007 at 3:41 pm
You got it. If my time machine showed me that his physical body was still dead, I don’t think I’d blink. If anything, I think I would be shaken and crumbled and sobbing in confusion if the man really did truly and literally rise from the dead. And that’s OK. I say too many Christians put too much faith in the stories themselves rather than the lessons they teach. I’m a terribly logical person, which is probably what leads me to say “raise from the dead” should be interpreted as “spiritually.” I may be wrong. I probably am. And I’m OK with that, too.
I suppose I feel that I should give an explanation for this stuff. My brother’s autistic. Therefore, I had little faith in anything after his diagnosis. I went to Catholic school, and I believed what they told me when I was very young for the same reason every child believes what adults say when they are very young. Joey got diagnosed when I was about 9. So between then and when I started going to youth group, at about 15 or 16, I just didn’t think about God. I wasn’t mad at him. I didn’t blame him. I just didn’t really want much to do with him. Youth group was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. It put me in situations where I felt God on numerous occasions, and anyone who’s had that tangible experience can’t deny his existence.
During that same time, I met a boy in high school who believed so much of the Bible so literally, that he truly thought the parts that said we pay for our ancestors’ wrongs meant, literally, we pay for our ancestors wrongs. For me to believe that, I would have to think Joey is autistic because of something my great great great aunt or grandfather did. And I don’t buy that. I say God had nothing to do with Joey’s autism, and I believe that because I have to. Because if Joey is autistic because of God, I want nothing to do what that god. So that basic tenet is a kind of foundation for the rest Jaclyn’s Religion: 1) God is good and is not to be blamed for the sufferings of the world. 2) I am an idiot who can’t possibly know what happened when the world was created and when the Bible was written and when Jesus was crucified and more and more and more, so it’s best for me to believe what I believe but know that I could very well be completely wrong. And I say that humility is probably the only way to handle God. Pomposity is faith’s kryptonite.
Sorry, again, if I rambled too much …
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July 31, 2007 at 3:24 pm
*claps* I love The God Squad. They’re so down-to-earth, and they handle some tough questions. That two men of different faith can agree to disagree and still answer such basic religious questions is truly a wonderful model for other Christians and Jews.
And to answer your question: No, I don’t think talking snakes happened. I don’t think a man got eaten by a whale. I don’t think how ever many fish fed thousands of people. I think they are stories to teach a valuable and necessary lesson.
This brings up a question. Maybe you can answer it here or tackle it in another blog. I read this question some where, at some point — but I think it makes an interesting point. When you view the Bible as I do — and, as I suspect, you do — how do you know what to take literally and what to take figuratively? The basis of Christian belief says Jesus rose from the dead. Does that mean his body actually got up and walked around, the literal meaning? Or that though his earthly body expired, his spirit never died, the figurative meaning?