Quotes About Interpretation

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming'?

Faulkner did the same thing in Absalom, Absalaom, demonstrating that no two people ever experience the same event, and that history is doomed ot only be a version of events.

You don't get to be the decider of what is yours and what can't be someone else's experience.

the creational monotheism of the Bible and of the church seems to logically require something like a prehistoric fall, regardless of how we interpret the Chaoskampf material of the Old Testament. Assuming that there is one eternal Creator God who is all-good and all-powerful, it is illogical to posit a foundational structural evil within the cosmos (which

the inerrancy of the Bible relates to the authors' original intent, not necessarily to our interpretation of a passage. Moreover, the inerrancy of an author's writing must be understood in accordance with the genre of literature the author was using and the culture the author was writing within. For example, we cannot say that an ancient author was incorrect in what he said just because he did not employ the same standard of precision we employ in our culture.

The literary framework view not only avoids this problem but actually explains it. The order of the days is not meant to reflect the chronology of creation. It is rather meant to express thematically the problems of darkness, watery abyss, formlessness, and void expressed in Genesis 1:2. 4.

Disagreements over the interpretation of Genesis 1 are not new. Early church fathers such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Augustine wrestled with this issue hundreds of years ago. However, the debate within Christian circles over the age of creation has intensified during the last 150 years, largely in response to the Darwinian theory of evolution.

Genesis 1 and the scientific evidence. The literary framework interpretation can easily be reconciled with any contemporary scientific theory of origin one chooses to embrace. Yet at the same time, reconciliation is not necessary. Genesis 1 has no bearing on science, for it is strictly interested in theology, not science. Responding

The rules of the universe that we think we know are buried deep in our processes of perception.

When we think of coconuts or pigs, there are no coconuts or pigs in the brain.

You could say whatever you liked to them and they would not take you seriously, not even take offense—as long as you told the strict truth. They never recognized it.

I know that humans are fond of seeing their kind rendered in other media.

Sir, 'pessimist' is a term invented by optimists to describe realists.

metaphorically, Mr. Winterbourne.

Ah, to be able to read both the surface and that which is below the surface!

Karla once said that men reveal what they think when they look away, and what they feel when they hesitate. With women, she said, it's the other way around.

The weeks I'd spent in Bombay with Prabaker had taught me that the shaking or wiggling of the head from side to side—that most characteristic of Indian expressive gestures—was the equivalent of a forward nod of the head, meaning Yes.

Did anyone ever tell you you've got a very peculiar way of putting things?

I said that the truth is found more often in music,' he repeated, 'than it is in books of philosophy

It was a friendly kiss, impulsive and generous and light-hearted, but I let myself believe that it was more.

The first rule of black business everywhere is: never let anyone know what you're thinking. Didier's corollary to the rule was: always know what the other thinks of you.

out at them, turning this way and that, his face cramped in an expression

The pages were dog-eared, and heavily annotated in Karla's own hand. (...) She consumed her books, I saw. She devoured her books, and was unafraid to mark them, even to scar them, with her own comments and system of references.

There is no objective and universally acceptable definition of good and evil. And until we have one, we will go on justifying our own actions, while condemning the actions of the others.