“History often resembles myth, because they are both ultimately of the same stuff.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy-stories” As a non-believer, one of my favorite go-to accusations of Christian or Jewish beliefs was to say that the Bible was ‘a book of fairy tales.’ This effectively disarmed any argument about what is contained in the Bible, since one could not use the text to support their beliefs, as far as I was concerned. It was faith against reason, and faith certainly didn’t make sense to me. Yet, I have come to realize that there was a third option. Biblical stories could be examined through both lenses, as a place where fairy tale meets reality, a place where the two touched, a border between the tangible and the intangible. I accused the Bible of being a book of fairy tales, but never stopped to ask myself, “If the Bible is a book of fairy tales, does that necessarily mean it lacks value as such?” Is there no value in taking away the historical, not getting bogged down with details, and viewing stories as an overarching truth?
Jessica I think you wrote a compelling apologetics piece. I always liked the Pinocchio story as it really does have a wisdom and truth to it as you pointed out.
Jessica I think you wrote a compelling apologetics piece. I always liked the Pinocchio story as it really does have a wisdom and truth to it as you pointed out.
I have to admit, I cringed a little as I started to read this. Then.....I saw where you were going with it...well done...