The Coming: Part Two | Via Meadia:
But there’s a temptation that goes with Bible reading: it is to turn the Book into an Oracle—to ask it questions it wasn’t intended to answer. The Bible is not the Mayan Calendar; it is not there to tell us when the world will end or, for that matter, to provide a scientific account of how it began. For two thousand years Christian scholars and theologians have warned against reading the Bible in the wrong way by asking it the wrong questions. In the classic text that many Christians use as their reference point for understanding what the Bible is for, St. Paul writes in his second letter to Timothy (chapter 3 verse 16 for those who follow such things) that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
It is worth noting that paleontology, geology and astronomy are not included in that list of what the Bible is good for.
Some Christians believe that you have to take the Bible literally to get any good out of it at all; if snakes didn’t talk in the Garden of Eden the whole thing is a sham. (Non-believers often think this is what Christians believe, and conclude that the whole religion is a waste of time.) Others seem to think that you should interpret it to agree with whatever fashionable ideas are blowing in the winds around you. I haven’t been able to content myself with either position; as usual when perplexed, I hunt for the middle ground.