Religion
In reply to the discussion: What is the role of inspiration in the Bible? [View all]marylandblue
(12,344 posts)He studied medicine, philosophy, and Kabbalah. This would have included physics. Kabbalah is based in neo-Platonic thought. He may or may not have known this.
Fifteen hundred years before Nahmanides, the philosopher Democritus proposed the existence of atoms. He made no claim to divine inspiration, just rational thought. He had no way to test his theory, nonetheless, he gets credit for the idea. Does this require we assume some sort of external "inspiration" like nobody in ancient times could ever speculate accurately?
He was not forced into exile for metaphorical thinking. He was forced into a disputation about the Bible with a Christian monk. He argued well, so he was brought up on charges and forced to leave.
And he never said the creation story was NOT literal. As all Jews and Christians of his day said, the Bible has BOTH literal and metaphorical meaning. But to my knowledge, none of them said there was never a literal Adam and Eve, or that any historical narrative in the Bible didn't actually happen.