Where is the Bible Ambiguous, Where is it Not Ambiguous


One of the best articles I have ever read about religion is not about Christianity but about Islam. Islam is, as I understand it, similar to Christianity in that it uses a sacred book. As time has passed, various conflicts have arisen in Islam between what is written and what we might call common sense or "reasoning." What is written but seemingly over-the-top unbelievable is called "revelation." Pointing out the impossibility of such things is called "reason."  An effort has been made to handle these conflicts and determine what is "right." That is, are there times when what is written in the Koran must prevail over reasoning or common sense? Then, there are places in the Koran that are clear. Other places are not so clear. The former are called "categorical" and the latter "ambiguous." 

Christianity and Islam share this dilemma. The two faiths seem identical in this unresolved matter. The Bible and Christianity has conflicts between reason and revealed and between categorical and ambiguous. In the link is a four-sided matrix which lays out the dilemma in Islam in a quite rational way. 

The link points out that even though the Koran (and Bible) stress the absolute necessity of the faithful to follow the god no matter where it leads, the god gave readers the power of rationality. Both books are written to appeal to a kind of rational thinking. If an almighty god exists, for example, it is rational to conclude that the god created all things and controls all events. To say religion and revelation must prevail in all cases over reason conflicts with using reason to carry out what has been revealed.

I hesitate to paraphrase the conclusion reached in the link between the conflicts between revealed and rationality. To me, the conclusion is that when the two are in conflict, revealed must prevail because the Koran is the word of God. This seems like a common conclusion in Christianity. 

This does not seem to solve the dilemma between when the Koran and Bible are ambiguous and when they are categorical. The Bible is categorical in the Ten Commandments. Many of these categorical pronouncements are not adhered to by believers. The modern issues some Christians have a cow over are ambiguous in the Bible. The two we discuss almost daily here, abortion and gay rights, are not in the Ten Commandments and are nowhere else in the Bible stated categorically, at least in what we know of the earliest versions. 

If there is a lesson in all of this, it is to not base a religion on an ancient and ambiguous book. Many followers will eventually find ancient writing to be meaningless.   

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