Just-so stories

Like Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, but for adults.

The creation story in Genesis 1 is an etiological myth, and so is the Tower of Babel in explaining where languages come from, and so is Genesis' explanation of why some animals are striped and some are flecked. The paragraph starting at Genesis 30:37 is lightly terrifying. An etiological myth is that type of nonsense story that tells how something came about. From the Greek aitiología, "giving a reason for" (αἰτία, aitía, "cause"; and -λογία, -logía). As an aside, Toyota sell a device called the Etios here, for which we cannot give a reason either. They're not just nonsense stories, they're thought-terminating. They've investigative dead-ends. They're the antithesis of curiosity, of actually understanding the world. It amounts to: here is an explanation, believe it. That's it. Done. Of course Rudyard Kipling didn't expect anyone to actually believe his story about "How The Leopard Got His Spots". But the Bible version of that in Genesis 30 is "infallibly true"... apparently. Not sure in what way it can be true, but that's no longer mental gymnastics I need to do.

In South Africa right now - apart from the imminent departure of a desperately corrupt president - the big concern is the drought in Cape Town. It's going to become the first modern-day city to run out of water. The panic is real. One figure I've heard quotes is that 60% of Cape Town residents are not attempting to save water. Which is a little bizarre for non-believers, but sadly expected among Christians. There are many promises in the Bible, purportedly said by the son of God himself, that you'll get whatever you ask for in prayer.

John 15:16. "... whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you." There's no condition attached.

John 14:14. "You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." Again, no condition.

Matthew 21:22. "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

There is a slight theological difference in Matt 21:22 because it's a qualified statement: if you believe. But don't tell me none of the people who fasted and prayed for the marriage equality bill in Australia to fail last year were true believers, or Angus Buchan who prayed for rain here.

So there are these promises that we know don't square with reality. Yet they are believed and acted on. The just-so stories are not only those nonsense ones in the Old Testament, that style of thinking is in the way believers "give a reason for" what they think or do. In the water crisis, many Christians aren't saving any water. When Day Zero arrives they will turn on the taps and say "I believe", as if that'll do anything. And the etiology for this is "the Bible says so". Sure, I agree the Bible says God will supply all your needs, and not to worry, and that you'll get whatever you ask for in prayer. But we also know that you don't get everything you ask for. On a spectrum between truth an lie, what Jesus said is more of a lie by any standard definition. So is saying "the Bible says so" good enough?

And how did Jesus fail to realize what he said wasn't true?