Why must we be punished for Adam and Eve's sins?

Question

Why are there horrible diseases that cause pain and suffering? Why do people hate each other? Why is there lust instead of love?

If God truly loved us as so many people like to preach, then why are we punished for something we had no control over? Why must we suffer from diseases and emotions, that were surely created by God?

And before I get any answers saying I need to find God or anything, those are simple questions that anyone that has a strong belief should be able to answer, even if you dont have a strong belief or if you dont believe at all.

Answer 1

Frankly, I think that the Genesis story is nothing more than a metaphor.

I would guess a lot of pastors would answer your question with 'Free Will'. God gave Adam and Eve the power of free will, gave them everything that they could ever want except that one tree, and Eve was theoreticallly seduced by the devil in snake form (which begs the question of 'Gee, God will just let anybody in Paradise, won't he?) to eat from the 'tree of life'. She did, took some to Adam, and he knowingly ate it. Out they got booted, but they maintained the lesson of the tree of life, the realization that things are simply black and white. Every person has the power of free will to do good or bad, and from our choices everything comes.

Now, on to religious texts - in the Old Testament God is known for being fairly nasty. Theoretically, he became all forgiving and relatively kick-back in the New Testament. That's the Christian view. However, look at the Quaballah - not the celebrity version - but the actual old Jewish text, and you'll find that their entire belief system on enlightenment or become one with God/the Universe, is bases on 10 level of what is know as 'The Tree of Life'. Each level brings you closer to enlightenment.

There are numerous religions, particularly Asian, that believe that life is nothing more than a forum of learning, that we are reborn to try to learn more to finally reach enlightenment, as which point you hop off of the wheel of life, reincarnation cycle.

Personally, the question I would ask you is, "What if t here was no disease, no emotion, no lust, no love (which by the way would be eliminated by your request for no emotions), no hate (emotions again), no pain, no suffering?'

Answer - We would be bored, unchallenged, and uncomprehending of what a perfect life we might be living. Self-styled Utopias never last, because humans innately need a challenge. We need to see pain and suffering to understand how wonderful it is to not be in pain or suffer. To learn anything, one must be challenged. The world wasn't made to be a playground, it was made to be lived on. Living involves growing, and nobody can grow without knowing the difference between good and bad, dark and light, love and hate. It also involves understanding all the shades of grey inbetween.

So, I won't say go find God; I will say, go find cures, go find love, go try to learn from this life, go live!

Answer 2

Firstly, why were Adam and Eve our representatives. I want nothing to do with them. Second, if we sin every day, then sinning clearly isn't that bad. Third, why should we need god's help in the first place? If everything was utopian and we knew it was god who made it that way, isn't that enough.

Why are we being punished like children being reprimanded by their parents? Surely an all-powerful god could make it so that punishment is unnecessary in the first place. Let's not forget that parents' punishments are not never-ending eternal damnation for something as trivial as being homosexual or eating lobster. Parents' punishments end. God's last forever.

Regarding God's plan to forgive us, with Jeebus and all that, why did we need Jeebus in the first place? Why couldn't God just forgive us? Big thundering voice in the sky: "You know, guys, I take it back, millions shouldn't suffer for two people's sins. Can we start over? All I want is a little appreciation!"

The original question is a statement of the problem of evil, and no theist has ever answered it adequately without the sort of hand-waving the past few posters have used. "He did it because he loves us!" or "He did it because we need free will."

Speaking of free will, an omnipotent god precludes free will in the first place. He KNEW we were going to sin, even if he gave us the choice. If he knew it, why did he make us that way? From the very start of "In the beginning," God knew that mankind would end up in sin. There's two possibilities: Either God isn't omnipotent, so we can conclude that the bible is lying on most points; or there is no free will, in which case the argument that we chose to sin is false, and therefore God is a spiteful and vindicative being and doesn't deserve my belief in the first place.

Of course, there is always the possibility that god is just imaginary, something to attribute the unexplainable to. We know better now, but the myth still persists as a sort of adult-version of a security blanket: "Believe and everything will be all right."

Answer 3

It is true that in a sense , we are being "punished" for the original sin of Adam and Eve.

What we received from them and what they did, was knowledge of Good and evil. Prior to that we werent stupid, we had knowledge of Good.

Evil existed already, what adam and Eve did, was allow it into the world.

What we live with and fight against today is our sin nature, and yes, the pestulances and the diseases that came with it.

It is part of the total plan and asking me or anyone else to explain it, would be like asking your three year old to explain Rocket science. She would answer that it goes up in the sky or another simplistic but true explanation.

The end result is that all this will come full circle and all the bad will again be wiped away and only good will remain. We are impatient with this explanation because we would like it gone yesterday , but we are told we must wait for the fullness of time.

Answer 4

We are punished by our own sins, sometimes our sins effect other people too. Adam and Eve committed the original sin (which was going against God) now we all have the knowledge of good and evil. If bad things only happened to bad people, who would care? How would we learn forgiveness and mercy? How why would we have faith or hope? How would we ever learn compassion? To assume that if God really loved us, we would never suffer is to not put too much thought into it.

Answer 5

God told adam and eve not to eat the fruit. It was their fault and i understand where your coming from but there are so many things in life you have no control over. For example: Why must i get shot walkin in a normal neigborhood for doing nothing? Believe it or not but diseases are man made, people tried to get rich so they made drinks, different food, and that let out certain chemicals that kill. God right no wis weeping over us but under his own rule he said he shall not interrupt free will.

But do not worry for God has said he will step in, he will save all those who endured atheistic prosecution. Do not worry just believe. When you wake up in heaven you will be amazed and wonder what is of the atheists what is of my mortality. The answer to those questions is: GONE

Answer 6

it style of feels which you already recognize plenty. basically what punishment are you relating? Is it disease? growing to be previous? dying? or sufferings introduced approximately by using different persons? even if it truly is...we go through because of the fact of our imperfection and the unexpected events or injuries. enable's basically answer this via logical reasoning. the region may well be illustrated with a pan used for baking bread. If the pan has a dent in it, what occurs to each loaf of bread made interior the pan? each loaf has a dent, or an imperfection, in it. further, each human has inherited a “dent” of imperfection from Adam. because of the fact of this all human beings improve previous and die. they are additionally able to committing errors that would harm others or themselves. we at the instant are not in all probability being punished,we are suffering because of the fact we inherited the imperfection of our first father and mom. basically like a baby plagued by diabetes because of the fact of diabetic father and mom. yet i'm happy to assert that those punishment or sufferings will quickly to end. fascinated to correctly known how? click the link under.

Answer 7

God doesn't owe you anything. The Bible tells us that Adam took the wrong course, and plunged the entire human race into destruction. So tell a perfect, holy God that it's His fault for Adam's sin. You can deny your sinful nature all you want, but God is still as holy as he ever was, and we are at sinful as all of humanity has ever been.

Answer 8

Adam and Eve were created by God and everything was good until they stop obeying Him. It was their choice as today it is your choice to love or hate, to live in sin or in Holy Spirit.
People hate each other because they choose to, not because God wants them. God loves us and that is why he gave us ability to choose (free will). He wants us to love Him, but we may choose to do so or not. Probably it would be easier for Him to make us as mindless puppets, but in this case it would not be love. Love is given freely.
There are certain rules, and to mature people have to learn to follow those rules. Otherwise you rip what you saw, pain and suffering.

Answer 9

God created Adam and Eve as the first man and woman. He created them because he wanted a relationship, but he gave them free will to love and obey Him. They chose to disobey.
That is known as the fall of man. The good news is that God did not leave them in their sin. He had a plan to save mankind for all of the ages - it depends on our love and trust in the son he sent to redeem us from the sin of man - Jesus Christ. That the gospel in a nutshell.

God didnt/doesn't want to force himself on us - He wants us to seek/find/love/trust Him on our own. Otherwise, he could have simply created robots to love Him in return.

I hope this is a start - there is so much more ...

God bless you as you seek answers to your questions!

Answer 10

Why do parents punish their children? Because without correction they would grow up to be bad people. A lot of the problems that we have we have brought on ourselves. Our problems are the result of our actions not God's. We continue to sin so we continue to be punished.