“Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies.”
― Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor
Half plus Half = 100.0%, the entire world is incorrect
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Atheists are reactionary, all they care about is repulsing The Bible, Quran, Upanishads, Torah. That's like repulsing fiction Hamlet because it contains ghost characters, or repulsing Star Wars because it contains "the force" magic themes, or repulsing Lord of the Rings because there are "magic rings". Science Fiction stories like The Bible can be understood, don't be afraid of fiction.
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Believers confuse fiction with non-fiction. Bible verse "John 1;1" from 2,000 years ago spells out this problem along with Bible verse "1 John 4:20". You can not love God or love Jesus, because love of a fiction character or dead person you never met isn't really love. Again, Bible verse "1 John 4:20" spelled this human brain confusion / educational misunderstanding thousands of years ago.
It's a broad stroke to claim all atheists are dismissive of the Bible as a piece of storytelling. There are some good stories to ponder, but that doesn't change the fact that as a whole narrative is disjointed and contradictory, and it's a bad influence in many areas for those who would treat it all as fact and act on the worst parts.
I would say it is a super super large ultra broad stroke, and even a multi-stroke multiple layers of paint, primer paint, top coat, clear-coat.
Not only the Bible, but the Jesus and Mary stories that are retconned in the fiction Quran by Mohammad in the spirit of Bible verse Romans 11:32 which allows anyone to re-write The Bible as they see fit. Not only did Mohammad in Saudi Arabia rework the Bible stories, removing Mary's husband Joseph, for example - a Founding Father of the United States of America took a knife to The Bible and deleted scenes and stories he did not want to be emphasized. The Jefferson Bible rewrite / retcon - Jefferson was following the same rewrite / retcon tradition as Mohammad had done more than a thousand years earlier.
They are dismissive of poetry, metaphors. They have failed to grasp media literacy concepts and teachings. It is just easier to dismiss entire categories of the Public Library, not fully questioning the line between the non-fiction and fiction section.
From: https://thesithlibrary.wordpress.com/2008/03/09/the-way-of-art-by-joseph-campbell/
So I come to one–I won’t say where–on so and so’s show–and it’s live on the air–not television this time but radio. I walk in and here is this young man sitting across the table and I saw him and I knew I have a real slick article here. So I sit down and he says to me, “I’m tough. I’ll put it right to you, I’ve studied law.” So, okay, the light goes on and the first thing he says to me is, “A myth is a lie, isn’t it?” And I say, “No, a myth isn’t a lie,” and then I gave him my definition. I said, “It’s an organization of symbolic forms, images and narratives that are metaphoric of the possibilities of human experience and fulfillment in a given society at a given time.” Well, that went out the window and he said, “It’s a lie.”
So, on we go…and we have one half hour of this kind of dialogue. And almost exactly five minutes before the end of the show I realize this guy doesn’t know what a metaphor is.
So, I said, “Mr. metaphor, give me an example of a metaphor.” He said, “You give me an example.” I taught school for a long time, I said, “I’m asking the question this time. Give me an example of a metaphor.” Well, if you’ve ever seen a building fall apart, you’ve seen what I saw. This “authority” became…I felt ashamed that I had done this to a human being and it was on his show! He was all over the floor trying to look for a metaphor. Finally with two minutes to go–it was like the end of a ball game you know with half a minute–he comes up and said, “I’ll try.” Isn’t that wonderful? He said, “So and so runs very fast, ‘he runs like a deer,’ that’s a metaphor.” “That’s not the metaphor. I said. “The metaphor is. ‘so and so IS a deer.'” He says, “That’s a lie!” And I said, “That’s the metaphor!!” and that was the end of the show!
So, listen, that taught me a lesson. This is a metaphor. Good. Nobody knows what the hell a metaphor is. All religions are mythological. You see what that means. They don’t realize that Yahweh is a metaphor. The terrible thing about Yahweh is, he didn’t realize it either! He thought he was the connotation, don’t you see? So, when a metaphor is read with reference not to the connotation but to the denotation, it’s a lie. Hence atheism.
Meanwhile, the ones who are worshipers of the metaphor don’t know what they are doing, so they are missing the message. Do you get what I’m saying? This is really important stuff. I don’t know whether its in the N. Y. Times yet but its important.
Acting out Star Wars and playing Darth Vader fiction character like Elon Musk is doing with Starlink and SpaceX isn't a good idea either, but people do it. Joseph Campbell even discusses the metaphor meaning behind Darth Vader.... Elon Musk is "act on the worst parts" of science fiction stories.