Think about communion

29. Think about communion

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First, read Marshall Brain's essay: Think about communion

Brain takes on communion. Bread and wine turning into flesh and blood is pure symbolism. There is a lot of symbolism in the Bible. It's God's style. It's poetic. Poetry is beautiful and inspiring. And it makes you think. Science minded people like Brain have a lot of trouble with symbolism and poetry. Physicist Paul Dirac had this to say about science and poetry:

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.

The explanation of communion goes like this, starting with John 1:1 we have:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (KJV)

and then in John 1:14 we have:

And the Word was made flesh (KJV)

So the bread represents Christ's flesh, but Christ's flesh is also "the Word". Or in other words, when you consume the bread you are symbolically taking in God's word (listening to Him, paying attention to Him).

Now for the wine. The wine is described as Christ's blood. And we know this about the blood of a creature from Leviticus 17:14:

The life of every creature is in its blood. (NLT)

So when you take in the wine you are symbolically taking in life from Christ. And that would be spiritual life, of course.

Again, note that symbolism and poetry are difficult for people like Brain.

CHRISTIANS know this is all symbolism. On the other hand, the CATHOLIC CHURCH has taught that the bread and wine are miraculously changed into actual flesh and blood. Although I don't think many Catholics actually believe this either. Christians tend to regard the Catholic church as the work of the Devil since much of Catholic doctrine contradicts the Bible. You'll often find a Christian leader claim the Pope is THE false prophet, an anti-Christ or even THE anti-Christ.

Marshall, if you're going to criticize something in Christianity you're going to have to present all the interpretations. It's cheating to just present one that doesn't make any sense and then attribute it to CHRISTIANS.