The Bible Is a Parable: A Middle Ground Between Science and Religion

ISBN-13: 9781934956465 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 574 str.

Sr. Albert E. Gilding

Opis

From the most ancient indicators of intellect, to the most modern of all discoveries, has come an amalgamation of this endless quest for knowledge into the never-ending story of everything. When, and from where, has come the first intuitive ability to inquire into the nature of the physical environment that has surrounded mankind from the very beginning? One of the first and most enduring indications that it had come into existence seems to have been "written" into and onto the stones of antiquity. The much earlier sharpening of that ability seems to have turned into the mental process called "wondering;" that intuitive "inquiring" into the "how they came to be," of the things that drew Man's attention. The "flowering" of that ability eventually turned into the complicated choreograph defined as "thinking," both purposeful and abstract. And that, evolved into "systems of belief." (The acceptance of a proposition with less proof than would grant positive knowledge; a "surmise" into the nature of that which appeared to work toward the benefit of Man, long before any knowledge of why could even be contemplated.) Those "systems of belief" that delved into the dimly perceived spirit-side of Man's natural world, became known as "Religion." Many of these developed within pockets of isolation, the byproducts of Man's radiation over the face of the earth. Eventually, within that expansion, overlaps occurred. Confrontations became inevitable and "debates" over whose postulations represented the "real" Truths took on a kind of "life-and-death seriousness that has complicated all of our past as well as current history. Into this miasma of contention has intruded the newest "gatherer" of information called "Science" with the declaration that their "Facts" are superior to all previous understandings. This has bred a new and far more deadly "Battle of intellects." Now onto that scene appears a new "Voice" pleading for an understanding of the "commonality" that seems inherent within all knowledge gathering systems. Will it be heard within the thunder and lightening of the latest contenders for primacy? Only time will tell, as this Author makes his "best of all efforts" to intervene on behalf of this new attempt at a rationality that appears to rise above the mere insistence of prideful prerogatives. The reader is also given options to choose among, concerning where we may have come from; where we have been, both physically, culturally; and spiritually; where we may actually be in the greater scheme of things; and where we just might be going. This book is the end-result of that effort as illustrated in a previous paragraph. The six relatively short stories are a gift of entertainment meant as breaks in the contemplation of the serious investigation that this work represents. They are also illustrations depicting how one might have lived through the real-world events that the Bible seems to be a parable of.