For the last time, we ARE NOT evolved from monkeys!

[blahflowers]

Something that occurs to me as a result of chatting about religion elsewhere:

How do Christian fundamentalists reconcile the events in the English version of the Bible that are due to mistranslation, such as Mary being a virgin?

Comments

[lozh.livejournal.com]

Christian fundamentalists are quite capable of believing mutally exclusive statements. Not only that, they are happy doing so.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Seven Reasons Why I Believe in the VIRGIN BIRTH OF CHRIST, by some nutty fundamendalist.

[blahflowers.livejournal.com]

Aaah, Ian Paisley, doing for religion what he does for peace in Ireland, I'd bet he'd change his tune if he was told that the only people who could speak to Mary's Virginity were Fenians.

[ludy]

what's even wierder is the number of christians who think she stayed a virgin ever-afterwards when the Bible make it quite clear she had other children

[iliadawry.livejournal.com]

You're assuming that fundamentalists read the whole of the Bible. I find that to be an unwise assumption.

[mistressmousey.livejournal.com]

I agree. They generally mark a few valuable passages for use in argument later (and for personal inspiration) and leave the rest unread, or only generally skimmed, glossing over any bits that don't make sense. Selective memory and all that. The majority of the scary believers are generic followers who believe anything they're told by people they trust, who are generally priests/preachers who *have* read the whole of the bible and carefully either don't discuss the parts they don't like, or creatively re-interpret them so that they can mean something other.

I have much tolerance for religious people who are willing to let other people do/believe what they want (and I really don't care if they think I'm going to Hell - a truly good Christian would simply worry and pray for me on their own time, understanding that God has a master plan and only He can control the universe), but the blind followers who only believe what they're told without putting any thought into anything for themselves... they scare me. A lot.

[spyinthehaus.livejournal.com]

The short version is, they generally don't - the KJV is a useful stopping-off point for a lot of Fundamentalist Protestant groups, because it is in English, has the authenticity of age and is demonstrably not Catholic. So, you roll with the punches. In the specific case of the description of Mary as a parthenos, you say that clearly they meant Virgin, whatever the origin word was, because that is how the story is told in the Bible you are holding, and therefore this is how God wants his story to be told. Since it's in the Bible, it's the literal truth, because if it wasn't the literal truth God wouldn't let it be in the Bible.