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by dragonwriter 3869 days ago
> When Ben Carson says that the world was literally created in 6 days, lots of people say he's crazy, but the only people who say he's misinterpreting the text are people who want to push their own interpretation

Yes, it is trivially true, by definition, that the only people who say that someone has an incorrect interpretation is people who would portray a different interpretation is correct. That's what saying an interpretation is incorrect means.

1 comments

Obviously, but appealing to others' religious beliefs is hardly a compelling argument when trying to make a claim about correctness or truth. My point is that if you look to secular scholars, they are unlikely to be accusing Ben Carson of interpreting the Bible incorrectly. They might call him an idiot, but they'll call him an idiot for his belief that the Earth was created in 6 days, not because he argues that the Bible says this.

When I said it's "hard to accuse someone of misinterpreting...", I meant that it's hard to accuse them in a convincing or sound manner. Obviously it's easy to accuse anyone of basically anything. You just open your mouth and make the accusation. But to do so convincingly takes effort beyond "I don't like their interpretation so they must be wrong". The literal interpretation actually seems like the default, and any other interpretation demands support.