What if we took the historicity of sacred scriptures off the table, and focused on their meanings?

[muriel_volestrangler]

50. Consider what the OP says

"Suppose we start with the assumption that none of it had ever factually happened as written. That if any of it happened to be historically accurate, that would be decided only by appeal to archaeology, philosophy, science, historical analysis and other secular disciplines, rather than on the basis of tradition or otherwise being necessary for maintaining tribal integrity. "

So, that means there was no resurrection in Christianity, no exodus from Egypt or conquering of Canaan in Judaism, no appearance of Gabriel to Mohammed in Islam. All these are out, because they are historical claims that can never be backed up by secular disciplines because they all involve miracles. The very existence of the gods the describe is out, too, because that is also something supernatural, for which secular disciplines will never have evidence for.

"we did not officially privilege one scripture over another (though each of us might naturally end up more influenced by some than others). Rather, we learned from all of them as a common human inheritance, each speaking to us from a particular culture at a particular time, but each a gift from our ancestors, accepted to the extent that they reveal something about them and/or us. "

"Reader's Digest" isn't a bad summary of that. If we read the texts for "the extent that they reveal something about them and/or us", and don't privilege one of them, then they are literature. And literature does not cause people to pray, build places of worship that privilege one of the scriptures, or pay people to tell them why paying attention to one set of texts is the proper things to do.

Now, you may decide that you still like this idea, or perhaps you're not so keen on it after all. But you really can't say that most people are already leaving gods and other supernatural claims out of their readings of scripture, and are looking for what they all tell us about us and our predecessors.