Skip to content
August 1, 2022 · 53:14 · 11 min

What 'literal' even means

The article's remaining stats: 6 percent of the non-religious call the Bible the literal word of God ('What kind of maniac goes, I don't believe in this at all, but I think there is a God and I think he wrote it'), and post-9/11 polling bumps are noted (seg-00500 to seg-00508). Professor John Hammett is quoted: 'literal interpretation of figurative language requires understanding what the figures literally mean' - parables, poetry, and lament communicate literal truth in diverse ways - which the room largely agrees with while noting ordinary people do not carry that definition into a survey; a host invokes a 'Blue Collar Mike' persona for the plain-spoken take (seg-00528 to seg-00540). Comedy interlude: the hosts look up John Leadley Dagg (1794-1884, first comprehensive Baptist systematic theology in America), roast his portrait hair ('someone stole Martin Van Buren's hair'), and rule against naming chairs after hard-to-pronounce names; Nathaniel confesses he sent the article without reading it (seg-00542 to seg-00563). The hosts design better survey questions ('did God pin Obadiah himself, or use humans?'), discuss manuscript transmission and why translators prefer the harsher or more embarrassing variant, and close doubting the poll measures anything real (seg-00564 to seg-00624).

Now playing
0:00 0:00