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A Talking Donkey

I never cease to be amazed at the credulity of the religious. A while back, I commented on a talking donkey in the Bible. It's in Numbers 22:28-30. Back when I did this, I had several people claim that I had no idea what I was talking about, because I was taking it as literal truth. Some said I obviously had not read anything about the Bible and was uneducated because of the way I presented the scripture and made fun of it.

My obvious response was that I wasn't talking to the metaphorical Christians. I was talking to the ones that take every word in the Bible as literal fact. For someone to get upset at me and treat me as if I don't know what I'm talking about, well, it only speak to that person's ignorance of his fellow believers. Do not attack me when I'm actually addressing views a great deal of people hold. That is, some Christians don't say that the story of Balaam and the donkey is allegorical. Instead, they say an actual donkey talked to an angel on planet Earth. That it was as real as anything else in reality.

I've posed this question to fundamentalists (those who take the Bible entirely literally) to gauge their reactions. The vast majority of these fundies have no problem accepting a talking donkey.They say that in the past talking animals were actually very common, after all Eve talked to a snake in the Garden of Eden.

One can only sit back and laugh at such credulity. I used the talking donkey story in an effort to show fundies how ridiculous it is to take the Bible literally, but that doesn't discourage them in the least. They are willing to accept blindly whatever the Bible says. And this fact is precisely why they are so dangerous. There is not one drop of evidence for a talking donkey or snake, ever. The Bible is the perfect word of their perfect god, so whatever it says MUST be true, right? Give me a break.

Did I say I sit back and laugh at them? Well, truth is that I'm just as likely to shed a tear over this sad fact about members of my species.

shafique wrote:Whilst eh has been trying his hardest to get me to believe in his interpretation of the Quran that ants could speak to Solomon and reject the logical alternative - I asked him a related question which he thus far is ignoring (perhaps out of shame?).

We've already established that between the two of us, only eh rejects science when scripture says something fantasical occured - eh believes the Bible's claim that the sun stopped in the sky for a whole day when science tells us that this is impossible as it would mean the earth stopped rotating.

But on the question of talking donkeys - some Christians take the rational view that this is metaphorical and not literal, but some of eh's countrymen (the 'bible bashing' variety) do take this literally and believe donkeys could converse. I'm merely asking eh whether he agrees with the former or latter Christians?

shafique wrote:May I ask whether you also believe that Donkey's can talk (I know my kids think they speak like Eddie Murphy - but they recognise this only happens in Shrek!):

Numbers 22:28-30,
28 And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” 29 Then Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a mockery of me! If there had been a sword in my hand, I would have killed you by now.” 30 And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever been accustomed to do so to you?” And he said, “No.”

It appears that there are indeed some Christians that believe this literally happened (others say it was a dream or that the braying was interpreted.. etc).

Do you believe that the Bible's description of a talking Donkey literally happened? Yes or no??

Cheers,
Shafique