Playing "Stratego" with The Word

I've just had one of those "I wish I'd said that" moments. Or in this case, "I wish I'd written that."

Steven Wiggins has an excellent piece about how modern folk - like me and thee - must indulge in intellectual gymnastics to come to grips with crumbling Bible claims. "Word games."

Here's the opening paragraph.

The idea is a simple one. When someone undermines, the very foundation of an idea is left with no foundation. We are taught not to undermine ourselves; for enemies it’s okay. Encouraged even. The Bible contains the seeds to its own undermining. The claim that it is a sacred book encourages—even demands—serious attention be paid to it. When it is examined closely, however, it becomes plain that the status accorded it as a book undermines its own claims. Believers can respond in several ways. One is to declare the Bible inerrant and to claim that contradictions are not contradictions and that what history has proven false is actually true. The keenest breed of such inerrantists hardly exists any more, since it does require a stable, geocentric view of the universe, if a universe there be at all. On the other extreme there are believers who make sacred writ so highly symbolic that we need not worry about the obvious factual errors—they were never meant literally anyway. And, of course, every position in between.

Yup. To read the whole post just click across to Sects and Violence. And if you're tempted to think that this is just the work of yet another two-for-a-dollar pundit, do check out his bio/CV.