The Literalists

There has been a lot of hoopla around the recently discovered fossilized skeleton of an unknown creature.

From the story –

About the size of a small cat, the animal has four legs and a long tail. It's not a direct ancestor of monkeys and humans, but it provides a good indication of what such an ancestor may have looked like, researchers said at a news conference.

When this story first came out, I sent myself the link and decided to read it later. The next day I got the OneNewsNow.com daily news brief email with the headline “'Ida' an extinct primate - and that's all.” I decided to hang on to that email too to check out later. So yesterday I decided to finally open up the ONN email and found a link to this story. After having scanned the story a bit, I noticed a link to Answers in Genesis, which I opened and briefly scanned as well. Then I came across this post at Fear an Iarthair on the subject.

This story has sparked yet another flame in the fire of the evolution vs. creationism debate. This is a debate that I find to be rather pointless really (possibly because I've been having it with people since I was in 5th grade). Science and religion are not in conflict because they are essentially trying to express the same mysteries of the world, but they are using different words to do it.

Those who take the literal view of religious texts I think miss the inherent beauty of religion. In other words, they cannot see the forest for the trees. Why spend so much time and energy trying to prove that your myth is factually accurate? What does it matter?

I know that my opinions may sound like new age mumbo jumbo to those who take their scriptures literally. And I’m sure that there are those who think that I’m am just talking about Christianity but they would be wrong. I don’t care if you are Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Taoist, Buddhist, Wiccan, or any other religion. If you confine yourself to believe that the sacred text(s) of your faith are the literal word of God and a completely factually accurate historical document, then you are missing the point. These texts are guides to help us better live our lives and not to explain exactly how the universe came into being. Besides, the other problem with literal interpretation is trying to reconcile all of the discrepancies in the texts. The Bible is famous for having complete sections that move from one version of a story to another within a few lines (a great example of this is the story of Noah and the Flood).

What matters most about religion is taking to heart those three primary moral values that nearly all religions (a. don’t murder, b. don’t mess people over, and c. live your life in service of others) and living the best life that you possibly can by being the best person that you can be and taking care of those around you. That is the message of Jesus. That is the message of the Buddha. That is the message of the Tao. And that is the message that we all should follow. But sadly we often get lost in the details and thus lose sight of the bigger picture.