I would not generally expect clear thinking and intellectual rigour from a list of “God’s Temper Tantrums that Christians Never Mention”, any more than I would in a list of “10 Ways Atheists Are Just Rebelling Against God”. I would expect it to be a list of everything the author thought of that could fit that description, the more the merrier.
Accordingly, the presence of an unconvincing entry in such a list doesn’t seem to me to be much evidence for anything.
I have to say, though, that “obviously this is metaphorical” makes an unsatisfactory answer to complaints that something’s inconsistent / contradicted by more recent discoveries / silly / immoral, unless there is actually a good reason why the metaphor in question should be there. In this particular case, I think it’s fair enough; zapping a fig tree as a vivid illustration of the danger of not “bearing fruit” seems like just the sort of thing someone with his head full of, e.g., the doings of Ezekiel might think of. (Though it’s curious that no explanation of the context accompanies the description of the zapping; it looks as if the author hasn’t really understood what Jesus had in mind. Which brings up problems of its own. But I digress.)
I would not generally expect clear thinking and intellectual rigour from a list of “God’s Temper Tantrums that Christians Never Mention”, any more than I would in a list of “10 Ways Atheists Are Just Rebelling Against God”. I would expect it to be a list of everything the author thought of that could fit that description, the more the merrier.
Accordingly, the presence of an unconvincing entry in such a list doesn’t seem to me to be much evidence for anything.
I have to say, though, that “obviously this is metaphorical” makes an unsatisfactory answer to complaints that something’s inconsistent / contradicted by more recent discoveries / silly / immoral, unless there is actually a good reason why the metaphor in question should be there. In this particular case, I think it’s fair enough; zapping a fig tree as a vivid illustration of the danger of not “bearing fruit” seems like just the sort of thing someone with his head full of, e.g., the doings of Ezekiel might think of. (Though it’s curious that no explanation of the context accompanies the description of the zapping; it looks as if the author hasn’t really understood what Jesus had in mind. Which brings up problems of its own. But I digress.)