You sound like you take the Old Testament’s Genesis literally. That’s fine. I don’t.
For instance, Genesis says Adam lived to be 930 years old. Do you actually believe that?
I’ve been reading Mark Twain for more than 60 years; he is my favorite author.
His summation of the Old Testament is pithy: “The Bible is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.”
He’s right.
Twain also wrote this, a criticism of the authors of the Old Testament for the God THEY created; not the God who created THEM. He writes that literal belief in the entirety of the Old Testament is an impossibility:
“Strange, because they are so frankly and hysterically insane—like all dreams: a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice and invented hell; mouths mercy and invented hell; mouths Golden Rules, and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man’s acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship him!”
You see? Such a God as created by the authors of the Old Testament could only exist in fiction, because that God is a contradiction.
The God I believe in is not the one described above.
But the Old Testament has value as a foundation, as a guide. In that regard, it is essential.
Oh, I’m sure I’m going to get slammed. So be it.
Did Mr Clemens have similar views about the NT?
Which would seems more far fetched,.. a man living 930 yrs, or a man feeding thousands with a little lads lunch (with leftovers that a little lad couldn’t carry)?
Or a woman turned into a pillar of salt, versus a man that laid dead for 4 days suddenly raised from the dead?
Many experiences make for many memories. Mr Clemens took advantage of that, and his experiences in the reporting/printing world, to write novels and entertain.
Back in the 1960s my dad flew an after dinner speaker to different conventions to give an entertaining talk. He was good at it. His charisma and resonating voice was magnetic. It was a part time job that paid $500, plus expenses for each appearance. Yet my mother’s uncle was even more entertaining (and a bit salty) at family gatherings and didn’t charge a dime.
Like anyone that has lived as long as I have, I have had many experiences. The worst: my 15 yr old brother’s death in a farm accident (I was 11). One of the best: meeting the young lady that became my wife. The chain of events show divine direction in several aspects of it.