Why did God......

[stockerup]

Quote from Godshock:

It's not a matter of choosing to disbelieve.. analysis and common sense render those stories ludicrous when taken literally as they are by exoteric religion.. the bible is written in the language of the mystic, the subconscious language of allegory and symbolism.. taken literally they are childish fairy tales and the keys to power and knowledge are lost.. I'm sure a few hundred years back you would have just as staunchly argued the churches view that the Sun revolved around the Earth

Of course you are choosing. If you believe in Jesus Christ, then you have to blieve in the Bible. Contrary to your satement, knowing God Word is the key to power and knowledge.

Through out history there have been skeptics like you but they have always been in the minority. Millions of people are experienceing a personal relationship with jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior around the world, here, today, 2000 years after His advent. To voice your peddy argument is laughable at best; and that is commom sense.

As far as believing the sun revolved around the earth, you might be right; but believing that will not determine your eternal destiny; that also is common sense.

Maybe you should seek a personal relationship with God. I have found that most people who try to put up an agrument against God are just seeking out people to validate what they are thinking; the fact is, they are really not sure. There are so many arguments in the complexity of creation that confirms loud and clear that God exsist.

God still loves you regardless of what you are trying to convence yourself to believe.

 

[stockerup]

Quote from stu:

No problem stockerup. I think it's necessary to appreciate what is actually being suggested in the tale itself. The Tree of Life was quite a different thing and has quite separate imperatives altogether, although all of it is rather poor allegory.

As you say, Adam did not know of good and evil before he ate the fruit. Certainly then Adam had no choices about deciding what was right or wrong.

Imagine such a scenario ( after all that's all the Bible is about - imagination ) . God told him not to eat of the tree of knowledge and told him the consequences if he did. How could Adam know if it was good or evil to disobey ? How could he possibly know if it was right or wrong to do as he was being told when he had no knowledge?
He had NO knowledge . No information about God's status or whether or not he should do as he was told. He did not even know if he had to make a decision or not.
After that you have to start re-writing the story but that only results in things getting more and more ridiculous and convoluted the more one does.

The original story I think was Babylonian. More modern religion story tellers plagerised the Babilonian tales and the folk lore but never bothered to try and alter it in a bid to make it sound more compelling.

With the greatest respect, there has always been plenty of the kind of blind acceptance in human nature you exemplify, which is why they never had to.
The same blindness got Adam into a whole lot of trouble and got everything and everybody cursed along with it.

But if Adam had knowledge, he could have seen that not only was the snake a sneaky bastard as well as being a 4,000 year old cartoon character, but God had the worst of natures along with some serious personality problems and was an untrustworthy con man.

That would then leave Adam with a simple choice. Not to put his faith in such deceit.

The fact is, Adam had some kind of brain power or God would not have asked him to name the animals.

He was not choosing evil and good, he was confronted with respect for his creator, and he had to make the right decision or the wrong one in pure, simple obedience. Adam made the wrong decision because he chose to be disobedient.

 

[stu]

Quote from stockerup:

The fact is, Adam had some kind of brain power or God would not have asked him to name the animals.

He was not choosing evil and good, he was confronted with respect for his creator, and he had to make the right decision or the wrong one in pure, simple obedience. Adam made the wrong decision because he chose to be disobedient.

The fact is… non of it is a fact! For goodness sakes don’t make things too absurd. Genesis is bad enough as it is
A 20 or 30 month old babbie will talk and give animal names but you can't expect it to have enough knowledge to choose to be obedient.

 

[smilingsynic]

Quote from stockerup:

The fact is, Adam had some kind of brain power or God would not have asked him to name the animals.

The first man--Adam, Bort, Joe, Thor, Ravishing Rick Rude, whatever one wants to call him--came into existence over 500 million years after animals.

 

[Barth Vader]

Quote from smilingsynic:

The first man--Adam, Bort, Joe, Thor, Ravishing Rick Rude, whatever one wants to call him--came into existence over 500 million years after animals.

You must be one REALLY REALLY old dude to know that as a fact !

 

[smilingsynic]

Quote from Barth Vader:

You must be one REALLY REALLY old dude to know that as a fact !

It has nothing to do with my age. It has EVERYTHING to do with the historical record of the earth.

I also believe that the US had a civil war, that George Washington was a real person, and that the Roman Empire did exist, even though I wasn't around for those either.

Do you?

 

[Barth Vader]

Quote from smilingsynic:

It has nothing to do with my age. It has EVERYTHING to do with the historical record of the earth.

I also believe that the US had a civil war, that George Washington was a real person, and that the Roman Empire did exist, even though I wasn't around for those either.

Do you?

I can read the first hand accounts of your above referenced historical events, and rest easy that those are historical facts...

When we start trying to pin the "fact" on something that some modern era theorist states happened millions and billions of years ago, well, it smells like "faith" to me.

 

[I am...]

Quote from oddiduro:

put the tree of life in the garden if he knew that Eve would eat the fruit???

Is this not setting your children up for failure?

Had this debate with a friend of mine.

I told him the either the god of the bible is insane, or the story is wrong.

If God is all knowing, he set his children up to fail.

Edit: Mods move this to politics and religion please. I cannot delete the thread.

Your analysis is correct so far.
Consider that what sets man up for failure is nOt really GoD, but something posing as GoD.
This opens a pandoras box.


Christ!

 

[smilingsynic]

Quote from Barth Vader:

I can read the first hand accounts of your above referenced historical events, and rest easy that those are historical facts...

When we start trying to pin the "fact" on something that some modern era theorist states happened millions and billions of years ago, well, it smells like "faith" to me.

The dating of the earth's history is not "theory"--the evidence is not theoretical, but is physical and quantifiable.

This physical and quantifiable evidence is proof positive that the earth has a long, long, long history, and that mankind has a relatively short history.

One needs a great deal of faith to believe that Adam and Eve were real people, and that they were created a few days after birds, fish, and the sun. That faith is about as blind as one can get.

 

[Barth Vader]

Quote from Godshock:

We know the conditions of the universe 1 millionth of a second after the big bang 13.7 billion years ago.. don't think science would have much trouble with a few million years ago

Really ?

How about 1 millionth of a second prior