Teaching 6th grade Math=How religious scriptures work (prophet, bible, quote)
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I work as a waiter at a fine dining restaurant, and one of my co-workers is a teacher full time and only works weekends to give him a little extra cash (granted, thanks to Mother's Day we all walked with $800 dollars for three days of work , but that's besides the point...) Anyway, before the "rush" of old ladies going to get their early dinner on the kid's expense, he told me a story that made me have an epiphany:
He was teachings sixth graders Math and the question was a word problem using a "real world" scenario. A fellow purchased five shirts at Abercrombie and Fitch for a certain price and, upon getting up to the register, he saw a sign: All shirts are marked down 30% off. So, find the new adjusted totals for all the shirts.
This was one of a handfull of questions the kids got and were all split up into small groups to figure out the answers. When it got to the Abercrombie and Fitch question, the class was in revolt. About 40% of the kids were screaming that Abercrombie and Fitch NEVER has a sale like that and it's always expensive, and another 40% of the kids insisted that they had seen 30% off sales at Abercrombie and Fitch themselves, and the other 20% of them didn't care and just did the problem. Well, a good number of the kids were so caught up in arguing about the believability of a 30% off sale at Abercrombie and Fitch that they didn't even solve the question in time before the excercise was over.
Well...that is exactly what is behind every scripture on Earth. Did it matter if there was ever really a 30% off sale at Abercrombie and Fitch? No! What was the point? To learn how to subtract a percentage. Almost half the kids were none believers, almost half of them were believers, and the smallest group of kids understood the problem for what it was meant to be.
This board and the whole religious debate is like that class...on the one hand, you have the fundamentalist kids insisting that everything in the word problem (the scripture) is absolutely true and that there really is a 30% off sale at A&F (creationism, literalism, etc) and the anti-theists kids on the other hand insisting that there is no sale at A&F while the rest of us understand that the factuality of the word problem (the scripture) does not matter nearly as much as learning math (the lessons of life) before the end of the excercise (death) and that is what the Math teacher (God/gods/prophet/the universe/absolute reality/the higher self/the super ego) intended in the first place when he/she/them/it created the damn word problem (the scriptures) in the first place!
Also, just as the bulk of the kids were too busy arguing to learn anything...most people are stuck on one extreme or the other to the point that they do not learn anything.
Just as allot of those kids completely missed the point of the exercise by arguing what the facts were or were not, so many people completely miss the point of the scriptures by arguing what the facts are or are not.
Just as allot of those kids completely missed the point of the exercise by arguing what the facts were or were not, so many people completely miss the point of the scriptures by arguing what the facts are or are not.
Your bible is not a math problem, therefore your analogy is sadly flawed.
Your bible is not a math problem, therefore your analogy is sadly flawed.
The analogy is sound if you read the whole thing. I am not a literalist Nicene Fundamentalist and hence, I do not take the bible to be literally true but understand it has the same purpose as the Math problem: To teach us something.
Wether or not it is 100% true or not is besides the point: The lesson behind the problem is.
Because some do not understand that the facts don't matter as much as the lesson that use certain stories do. Why argue if it did or did not happen when the real question is: What can I learn from this scenario and how can I apply it?
That is true for a word problem, and true for religious scripture.
To get hung-up on the facts of a Scripture is to miss the point, just as it is a to miss the point of a word problem if you argue the facts of it and ignore the numbers.
The analogy is sound if you read the whole thing. I am not a literalist Nicene Fundamentalist and hence, I do not take the bible to be literally true but understand it has the same purpose as the Math problem: To teach us something.
Wether or not it is 100% true or not is besides the point: The lesson behind the problem is.
I don't think that all this fighting has much to do with whether the bible has morals to teach us or not.
Obviously the creationists do believe that events depicted in the bible literally happened and this clashes with our current understanding of history, science, physics and maths. The big controversies are always caused when a group of creationists use the law to try to redefine subjects science, history, physics ect... in order to conform to their views and then have it taught to the children of tax paying parents(who may or may not be creationists or even christians for that matter) in public schools.
I think this is a good thought if it helps explain the way things work in the world for you.
I was just thinking something the other day about finite and infinite numbers. Finite numbers are
a subset of infinite numbers. And then I was drawing it out into biblical thoughts...just like you were.
I think it helps sometimes to think of things we know of and relate it to things we are trying to understand.
One thing, though, ....each Bible story has MANY (some say infinite) lessons to learn. Your math problem, though, only had one correct answer.
I don't think that all this fighting has much to do with whether the bible has morals to teach us or not.
Obviously the creationists do believe that events depicted in the bible literally happened and this clashes with our current understanding of history, science, physics and maths. The big controversies are always caused when a group of creationists use the law to try to redefine subjects science, history, physics ect... in order to conform to their views and then have it taught to the children of tax paying parents(who may or may not be creationists or even christians for that matter) in public schools.
Yes, I agree. It is completely immoral to attempt to impose one's views on anyone else.
One thing, though, ....each Bible story has MANY (some say infinite) lessons to learn. Your math problem, though, only had one correct answer.
Good point. I do believe that the main premise, that is that the facts may or may not be true but the purpose of the excercise is to learn
something(s) is still valid.
I get your point. But I think most of us on this forum would agree that, for example, Jesus' teachings are broadly correct and worth remembering. So what's the point of debating that?
To remain in your analogy, we've all done our math problem, so now we chat about Abercrombie and Fitch to pass time until school's end.
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, but that's besides the point...) Anyway, before the "rush" of old ladies going to get their early dinner on the kid's expense, he told me a story that made me have an epiphany:
