Intelligent Religion

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Joseph Campbell suggests that people get into trouble when they take symbols that are meant to be understood as metaphers literally.  They confuse the literal denotation of a symbol (like the Eucharist) for its possible metaphorical meanings.    Christmas might be understood as the birth of divine in a human heart that transcends a mere physical understanding of life. Or it can be understand as an alleged literal birthing a god man two thousand years ago, with doubtful meaning or application to people of today. 

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