According to one source, "
Biblical literalism is the belief that the
Bible, or at least large portions of it, should be read literally, not allegorically. This means the language should be interpreted as used in everyday writing and speaking."
Can someone explain what that means? I don't even understand that definition, reminds me of what evolutionists say in a way -- say something without explaining it. So what's really "Bible literalism" according to the above definition?
Biblical literalism - Religions Wiki
Bible literalism means that the Bible is not altered, in any way, based on any new and clever subjective interpretation and/or temporal fads being used for its interpretation. Rather, the Bible is taken only as was originally written, without any alterations, so the words remain truer to the original for each generation.
For example, if I said that Joe hit the baseball a mile, the literalist would keep the word "mile", even though that is way too far for a baseball to be hit. It will create some confusion. Someone who is not being literal, may try to interpret what a mile means, to settle the confusion, and based on the wisdom of their own day; major league ball parks, they may decide it means 400 ft.
The literalist keeps the Bible the same; mile, while the temporal subjectivists has altered the Bible to 400 ft. The next generation of subjectivists, may decide to alter it even further from 400ft to 360 ft.
The literalist play the roles of gatekeepers and checks and balances so the stories stay closest to the originals. This way each generation starts with an original copy, for their temporal objective and subjective interpretations, instead of having to start from a bootleg copy. This has preserved the Bible.
There have been many people, over the centuries, who have used the Bible for self enrichment in the secular world. Many do this via their own unique interpretations; fads. The literalist help to make sure this does not last more than one self serving generation, at a time.
This topic reminds me of an Indian Jones movie rerun that I watched the other day; The Last Crusade, where Indiana and the Nazi's were both looking for the Holy Grail. as the story went, if one drank from the Grail, it would give that person eternal life. In the plot Hitler wants the grail.
The ambitious Nazi tomb raider interprets the Grail to be fancy and bejeweled chalice, fit for a king to please the Fuehrer. He choses poorly among all the fakes and the one original chalice and ages quickly and dies. Indiana went back to the roots of the original bible story and chose a simple copper mug, that befitted a carpenter. He chose wisely. The literalist preserved the original, so history does not go down the wrong path more than one generation at a time, before ti comes back to its roots.