It's like going to see a movie. I can suspend my disbelief enough to accept that aliens are invading Earth instead of the trillions of other planets out there. Or that people in the government would try to brainwash someone into being a mind-controlled assassin, instead of using a trained agent of the CIA. Or that ghosts are trapped on Earth and sometimes need help from the living to free themselves and get to Heaven, even though it would be much easier for God to do this Herself. All this stuff can make sense within the logic of the work of fiction.
So I can approach the Bible the same way. I can accept that God can be born of a virgin and kill Himself as a sacrifice to Himself to change a rule that He made in the first place. That's just the logic of the Biblegod fiction, even though it doesn't make any sense to me. But human nature stays the same. The Apostles don't bat an eye when they find out who is going to betray their spiritual leader. They're amazed whenever Jesus performs a miracle, even though they've seen it a hundred times already. We have a fisherman who gets terrified about falling into a calm sea. Even after hanging around the guy for 3 years the Apostles never understand any of his parables.
I expect a work of good fiction to make sense. The Bible is fiction, but it's not even good fiction.
So I can approach the Bible the same way. I can accept that God can be born of a virgin and kill Himself as a sacrifice to Himself to change a rule that He made in the first place. That's just the logic of the Biblegod fiction, even though it doesn't make any sense to me. But human nature stays the same. The Apostles don't bat an eye when they find out who is going to betray their spiritual leader. They're amazed whenever Jesus performs a miracle, even though they've seen it a hundred times already. We have a fisherman who gets terrified about falling into a calm sea. Even after hanging around the guy for 3 years the Apostles never understand any of his parables.
I expect a work of good fiction to make sense. The Bible is fiction, but it's not even good fiction.
If God wanted us to be Atheists we'd be born that way.
