Does scripture perpetuate ancient errors?

[Looncall]

So-called "holy books" clearly contain material that is at odds with reality as now understood.

A couple of examples:

Genesis uses the cosmology of the world as a bubble surrounded with water that was popular in the ancient middle east but is known to be rubbish.

A flood such as Noah's would have left worldwide traces that are nowhere to be found.

Would those errors have survived into the present if they had not been fossilized in scripture?

Is there any way to eradicate them?

 

[Sunstone]

I think it's pretty much indisputable that some scriptures -- in various religions -- do indeed perpetuate ancient errors. A larger question -- for me, at least -- is what does it say about us as a species that we are apparently so prone to such things? I've become fascinated with my own and humanity's irrationality.

 

[idav]

So-called "holy books" clearly contain material that is at odds with reality as now understood.

A couple of examples:

Genesis uses the cosmology of the world as a bubble surrounded with water that was popular in the ancient middle east but is known to be rubbish.

A flood such as Noah's would have left worldwide traces that are nowhere to be found.

Would those errors have survived into the present if they had not been fossilized in scripture?

Is there any way to eradicate them?

You could do what Jefferson did and cut out parts you need.

Jefferson Bible - Wikipedia

 

[Guy Threepwood]

So-called "holy books" clearly contain material that is at odds with reality as now understood.

A couple of examples:

Genesis uses the cosmology of the world as a bubble surrounded with water that was popular in the ancient middle east but is known to be rubbish.

A flood such as Noah's would have left worldwide traces that are nowhere to be found.

Would those errors have survived into the present if they had not been fossilized in scripture?

Is there any way to eradicate them?

Water existing above the sky, did seem like a very odd concept, counterintuitive, for very long time yes. But we know now that there is a vast amount of water in the heavens, that did exist from an early stage

The Water On Earth Predates The Formation Of The Sun

The big bang was once considered 'religious pseudoscience' also,

There will always be things in the Bible that we don't yet understand, that the light of science has not yet illuminated: atheism of the gaps?

 

[Super Universe]

So-called "holy books" clearly contain material that is at odds with reality as now understood.

A couple of examples:

Genesis uses the cosmology of the world as a bubble surrounded with water that was popular in the ancient middle east but is known to be rubbish.

A flood such as Noah's would have left worldwide traces that are nowhere to be found.

Would those errors have survived into the present if they had not been fossilized in scripture?

Is there any way to eradicate them?

Yes, the ancient books contain great "errors", or more correctly, great exaggerations. The storytellers couldn't help themselves.

How do you explain modern physics to someone with a tribal education? Very simply.

The flood story is actually a true story, although greatly exaggerated, about a people who lived on the Euphrates River floodplain and a man who buried posts into the ground and built a raised house and brought his chickens and goats into the house when the river over flowed it's banks.

What are your favorite stories, fact or fiction? The writers of the ancient stories had no idea that later people would worship them as if they came from God.

 

[sayak83]

So-called "holy books" clearly contain material that is at odds with reality as now understood.

A couple of examples:

Genesis uses the cosmology of the world as a bubble surrounded with water that was popular in the ancient middle east but is known to be rubbish.

A flood such as Noah's would have left worldwide traces that are nowhere to be found.

Would those errors have survived into the present if they had not been fossilized in scripture?

Is there any way to eradicate them?

Eradication of all delusions require detachment from those things that fuel ones ego. Excessive attachment to religious identity and scriptures and aversion to all things that counter these narratives is an important source of this for the hyper religious folks in the modern world.

 

[Augustus]

I've become fascinated with my own and humanity's irrationality.

My favourite piece of irrationality is the Rationalist's unwavering faith in their own rationality, a faith that is absolutely impervious to evidence or reason.

The idea that irrationality is caused by 'error' or some kind of 'failure' is pervasive, but quite wrong. Human cognition is a very interesting subject.

 

[Mister Silver]

I've become fascinated with my own and humanity's irrationality.

Fascination is one thing, but allowing the irrationality to continue is quite another. I look at the news only to have to spend the next five days not viewing the news to recover over how ignorant we have become as a society.

 

[Augustus]

Fascination is one thing, but allowing the irrationality to continue is quite another.

How do you plan on eradicating something that is hard-wired into us?

We evolved to be 'irrational' (i.e from an evolutionary perspective, the numerous cognitive functions that cause our irrationalities are often quite rational)

 

[Mister Silver]

How do you plan on eradicating something that is hard-wired into us?

We evolved to be 'irrational' (i.e from an evolutionary perspective, the numerous cognitive functions that cause our irrationalities are often quite rational)

I would hardly consider it hardwired. Rationality is simply letting go of cognitive dissonance.

 

[Augustus]

I would hardly consider it hardwired. Rationality is simply letting go of cognitive dissonance.

That's much easier said than done seeing as it literally alters our perceptions of reality, and anyway, it is far from the only aspect of our cognition that limits our rationality.

 

[Mister Silver]

That's much easier said than done

You're the one placing limits on yourself, not me.

 

[Augustus]

You're the one placing limits on yourself, not me.

Because it would be irrational to believe otherwise.

Human cognition limits human rationality (there is a lot of scientific literature which demonstrates this). I am a human. So, my cognition limits my rationality.

Much as I'd like to think otherwise, I'm not a special exception. You advocated not being blinded by cognitive dissonance after all...