Opus 2016-78: The Old Man in the Clouds

Atheists like to build straw men so that they can pull them down.  One of their caricatures involves God as an old man sitting on a cloud.  They claim Christians are simple minded and lacking in knowledge.  Part of the idea is that we are too experienced and sophisticated today to fall for those simplistic pictures.  In reality they are the ones who show ignorance. 

They refuse to accept that the ancient people knew literary types and recognized the difference between literal and figurative.  Take for instance this example,

(Psalms 36:7 KJV)  How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

The picture is a chicken gathering her chicks under her wings when there is a threat.  I think it is safe to say that the Israelites did not think God was a big chicken.  They knew poetry and history.  They knew metaphor and hyperbole.  They were not stupid, just lacking in technology.  Technology is not based on wisdom.  It is based on time.

If the atheists used the same standard in all of life and applied it to Shakespeare they would say he was a fool because he thought that Lady Macbeth had spots on her hand.  They would think that Aesop really believed that animals could talk. 

No, Christians who actually read their Bibles do not seriously believe that God is an old man sitting on a cloud.  They do not believe He has feathers, hands or a back.  All those are mentioned but the Bible also tells us that God is spirit.  We will be enriched by our literary devises that help us understand, and live by the timeless teaching of the Bible.

They can go with the latest fad.

homo unius libri