Science Forums 2

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by goku

you choose to believe there was a shakspesr, i'm not saying there wasn't, and the only proof you have is books. the bible is a book that you choose not to believe.

The parallel goku is drawing here is, I think, incorrect.

William Shakespeare is believed to be the author of many plays and poems (there’s actually some debate that some, or possible nearly all, of the works credited to Shakespeare may have been written by others, though most present-day scholars believe that they were all at least co-written by him). Many of his plays have supernatural characters and situations – for example, in “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, we have the Amazon queen Hippolyta marrying the legendary Greek hero Thesius, while the king and queen of the fairies Oberon and Titania have a spousal fight involving spells, patients, mischievous goblin servants, passerbys with their heads magically turned into donkey heads, etc. However, few audience members in Shakespeare’s time nor ours believes that these events actually happened, or even that the characters in them actually existed. Most people believe Shakespeare lived roughly when and where reference books say he did, and that his stories are fictional.

The Bible, on the other hand, is believe by many people not only to have been written by various authors (there’s considerable debate among Bible experts as to when and by whom the various books of the Bible were actually written, and if and to what ends and extent they were altered in translation), but that the stories in it are literally true. Many, arguably most of its stories have supernatural characters and situations – for example, Numbers 22 has the legendary magician Balaam arguing with his talking donkey (who, despite having more lines than some of the characters in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, remains unnamed) about the presence of an invisible (to Balaam, initially, not to the donkey) angel (also unnamed) with drawn sword.

Most people believes that someone (or possible several people) wrote the story of Balaam sometime roughly when reference books say it was written. Unlike the Shakespeare story, however, many people – people who believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible – believe that these events actually took place, and that Balaam, his talking donkey, and the invisible-then-visible armed angel actually existed.

Not all people who describe themselves as Jews or Christians and believe in the existence of God as described in the Bible believe that the story of Balaam literally occurred. Many such people believe that, like Shakespeare, the story is fictional, and intended to make a point using metaphor and allusion.

It’s possible that some people believe “A Midsummer Night's Dream” to be non-fictional. What distinguishes the works of Shakespeare from the Bible is that these people are few in number, and likely considered by most to be mentally ill, while people who believe the story of Balaam to be non-fictional are many in number, and not considered by most to be mentally ill.