Interpretation often takes you away from truth

by Ireneus 14 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  Ireneus

  Yesterday, my classmate was giving an example from her homeland on how people can give various interpretations which have nothing to do with truth. Though studying in the US, she was closely monitoring what was happening in Kerala (a small southern State of India), her birth place. Last month saw unprecedent heavy rains wreaking widespread havoc in this small State with huge population (which is much more than Australia’s population). Over 1.4 million people were displaced besides many deaths.
  

  In this State there is a famous pilgrim center called Sabarimala which attracts over 45 million pilgrims every year. Regarding the men-only-policy of this temple, case filed by women’s organization is pending with the Apex Court of India. In view of this case, many interpreted this natural calamity as caused by God’s anger because women wanted entry into this temple whereas others interpreted this calamity as caused by God’s anger because men prevented entry to women with some saying they would not permit women even if Apex Court judges in favor of women.

  Yet environmentalists and scientists are sure this havoc was man-made because of widespread anti-environment policies being practiced by the State.

  This explains why we find many interpretations on Biblical subjects with the possibility that none of them could be be true.
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  The problem with trying to interpret the bible to get to truth is not in the interpreting, it's in the source material. It's a book full of horrifying tales, monstrous moral agents and a few bits of wisdom that have been stumbled upon by basically every culture at one point or another. If you assume that it has some special truth in it, you either end up a fundamentalist with absolutely wretched morality or you twist yourself up in all kinds of mental contortionist knots trying to interpret an internally inconsistent text to hide it's abhorrent realities.

  Interpretation is absolutely vital to get to fundamental truths. Without interpretation you simply have a bunch of facts. It takes interpretation to get from the facts of the constancy of the speed of light and the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass to get to the general theory of relativity. It's interpretation that allows us to generalize data to get to facts. Of course there are certain techniques to interpreting things effectively (e.g. occam's razor) but when done correctly, simple and fundamental truths can be discovered.

  In your story it was not a lack of interpretation that got scientists to a better outcome, it was applying effective techniques of interpretation. The people interpreting it as god's anger were making two flawed assumptions - that there is some divine entity that involves itself in human affairs, and that this entity was responsible for the event. Scientists are generally much better trained in interpreting data effectively - they applied occam's razor and avoided initial assumptions that were completely unsupported.

  If you want to get to truth, first look at your starting assumptions and make sure they're justified, then weigh the possible interpretations by their complexity and fit to the data, and take the one that has the highest probability of being correct.
• 

  EverApostate

  Kerala state in India is the place where beef is taken as food by many.

  In addition to the Sabarimala accusation, Hindu fanatics attributed that God punished the state for eating beef, since cow is sacred in Hinduism

  This is how natural events get twisted as the wrath of God.

  In the Bible:

  Eve sinned and human suffering started.

  Suffering is natural in this planet. The Bible writer plugged an Eve’s story as the cause of suffering.

  The 10 plagues of Egypt

  Most of those disasters would have been natural, and the ignorant people back then attributed it as the wrath of god

  Jehovah killed 70K people because David took a census

  This should have been a Natural Plague - unknown that it was caused by microorganisms - for sure.

  And the list goes on......
• 

  TheWonderofYou

  Do you mean that for 45 million pilgrims there is only one temple in Sabarimala?

  Pilgrims

  

  A prayer for Ayya.

  https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/a-prayer-for-ayya/236222
  

  I dont understand how it can be "attractive" for women to fight for their right to go to exactly this one temple,

  that is overcrowded under the deluge and in a desastrous state.

  Garbage—empty bottles, plastic packets, leftovers and what have you—is routinely dumped into the river. However, the main source of contamination is the "overflow from latrines" that line the steep terrain along the riverbanks. Even at the sanctum sanctorum, the sewerage drains into a part of the hillock and gets washed downstream into the Njunangar rivulet that joins the Pampa.
• 

  Ireneus

  EverApostate

  "Jehovah killed 70K people because David took a census--This should have been a Natural Plague - unknown that it was caused by microorganisms - for sure."

  That's an interesting one I never thought of. It is most probable!

  TheWonderofYou,

  Wow, what a crowd of pilgrims! and your question is very relevant.
• 

  Vidiot

  OneEyedJoe - "The problem with trying to interpret the Bible to get to Truth is not in the interpreting, it's in the source material. It's a book full of horrifying tales, monstrous moral agents and a few bits of wisdom that have been stumbled upon by basically every culture at one point or another. If you assume that it has some special Truth in it, you either end up a fundamentalist with absolutely wretched morality or you twist yourself up in all kinds of mental contortionist knots trying to interpret an internally inconsistent text to hide it's abhorrent realities."

  
  

  Wow.

  Just... wow.
• 

  eyeuse2badub

  Interpretation is everything! That is exactly why there are literally 1000's of religions! The critical thing is: whose interpretation do you believe in?

  "O what fools we mortals be!"----bob dylan

  .just saying!
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  Using desired interpretations is not limited to Christianity and the Bible. That's my biggest take from this.
• 

  Diogenesister

  If you assume that it has some special truth in it, you either end up a fundamentalist with absolutely wretched morality or you twist yourself up in all kinds of mental contortionist knots trying to interpret an internally inconsistent text to hide it's abhorrent realities.

  @Vidiot Id just cut and pasted more or less the ssme piece when i noticed your post.

  @one Eyed Joe you seriously put this beautifully.
  
  
• 

  Anders Andersen

  This explains why we find many interpretations on Biblical subjects with the possibility that none of them could be be true.

  As you described people already come up with different interpretations for a single, unchallenged fact (heavy rains).

  It only makes sense that interpretations of someone else's convoluted fantasy or nightmares (e.g. Revelations), folk lore and origin myths (e.g. Exodus) and other such legendary stories that we don't even know to be factually correct, are going to be completely arbitrary and completely useless.

  It's also noteworthy that your example about the Kerala rains shows very clearly that people come up with interpretations that fit their pre-existing worldview.

  Very few of the women who wanted entry have interpreted the situation as their gods telling them to drop the case.

  Very few of the men who denied women entry have interpreted the situation as their gods telling them to allow women in the temple.

  None of the scientists accepted the interpretation that those floodings are the wrath of a god.

  They all interpreted according to their already existing worldview.

  And that is exactly the point I tried to make in one of your other threads. Anyone who reads the Bible will interpret it according to their own preexisting ideas and beliefs.

  Someone who believes God is loving, kind and patient might interpret that some parts of the Bible are written by 'false friends', and that their depictions of God as jealous, angry, vindictive or violent are to be ignored. That interpretation is however entirely arbitrary, according to that person's preexisting beliefs.

  If someone else were to claim the exact opposite (God is impatient, violent, vindictive, and every Bible verse that says otherwise is written by a 'false friend'), that interpretation would be just as valid/invalid and useful/useless and the favorable interpretation.

  Just like the Kerala rains, people generally interpret the world and religious ideas just the way they want. They construct their own god(s)/God and make the world and the texts conform to that.

  Worse, the texts themselves are the result of people having preexisting religious ideas and interpreting their world according to those ideas.

  Building your reality on those means interpreting the (incomplete record of) someone else's interpretation of the world.

  Can't get much unstable than that....(well unless you add another layer such as JW who interpret the JW leaders' interpretation of Bible writers' interpretation of the world.)