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So, breaking it down goes something like this...God shows up after they ate the fruit from the forbidden knowledge tree, and he wants to know what happened...right away Adam blames it on Eve. Eve pleads the 5th. God says, "Alright, you broke the lease by doing that. So I'm breaking your lease and kicking you out. I am very disappointed in you. Especially with you Eve. I am so upset with you that I am going to give you and all women a monthly reminder of this act. I'm also giving you the pain of bearing children for you and all women.
I think you get the picture. The story really seems difficult to interpret, even though I am a devout follower of Christ.
What are your thoughts?

2007-01-14 06:37:58 · 16 answers · asked by JOHN 7 in Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality

16 answers

Carnac writes we automatically go to hell. My god and (i believe) the creator of our shared universe - is not some sadistic tyrant who damns his children to eternal suffering. You worship some demonic creature like that - full of wrath and vengeance, great see how that works out for you. My god is a creator not a destroyer who is well above these so called earthly offenses.

Chef Bob writes who are humans to interpret God's message...
How quickly he forgets theologians have always agreed that the passages of the bible were written by human hands!
There is no passage which claims divine manifestation.
Therefore all words were human manifestation.

That's off topic (sorry) - let me get back on track.

The story of Genesis puts the onus of guilt on women.
It clearly indicates women to merely the counterpart to male and not his equal. It demonstrates why they bear the guilt and even goes so far as to state the pain of child labor is punishment for their original sin. I guess that means menstration is more godly punishment - though that does not get mentioned until much later in the book.

I have always wondered how the wiley serpeant got into Eden unless God put him there to close the deal.
Also it is safe to assume that god in his omnipotence set up the whole tree of knowledge thing knowing full well eventually Adam and Eve would eat the fruit and he could get the show on the road. Christians - wouldn't it be folly to think god was stunned to see they had given into temptation?

In conclusion - in my opinion it is the greatest fictional story ever and there is not a single reason to believe otherwise - additionally when you view nature and the reoccurring cycles/patterns in life - the whole thing is most unnatural.

2007-01-14 07:00:36 · answer #1 · answered by Nicholas J 7 · 1 1

Adam and Eve got a bad rap because they didn't have the knowledge of good and evil until AFTER they pinched the fruit.

This is eloquently expressed in this excert from "The Diaries of Adam & Eve" by Mark Twain:

"They drove us from the Garden with their swords of flame, the fierce Cherubum. And what had we done? We meant no harm. We were ignorant and did as any other children might do. We could not know it was wrong to disobey the command for the words were strange to us and we did not understand them. We did not know right from wrong, how should we know? We could not without the moral sense, it was not possible. If we had been given the moral sense first, ah, that would have been fairer, that would have been kinder. Then we should be to blame if we disobeyed. But to say to us poor ignorant children words which we could not understand and then punish us because we did not do as we were told, ah, how can that be justified? We knew no more then than this littlest child of mine knows now with its four years, oh not so much I think. Would I say to it 'If thou touchest this bread I will overwhelm thee with unimaginable disaster even to the disolusion of thy corporial elements' and when it took the bread and smiled up in my face thinking no harm not understanding those strange words would I take advantage of its innocence and strike it down with the mother hand it trusted? Who so knoweth the mother heart let him judge if I would do that thing".

2007-01-14 06:52:07 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

God created man, then He created woman.
He placed them in a garden and gave them charge over everything in the garden, including the beasts of the fields.
He placed two trees in the center of the garden, one is a tree of life, and the other is the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which He told them would result in death if they ate from it.
Then analogy here is they were given two trees, one that gives life and the other that gives death.
They chose to eat of the tree of knowledge that leads to death.
God finds them hiding in the garden and they tell him what happened.
The serpant had tempted Eve, and Eve had tempted Adam.
God puts curses on all three for their part in the episode.
God runs them out of the garden and places angels at the gates to ensure that they cannot return and eat of the tree of life.
What God did not want is for Adam and Eve who had learned what evil is, to eat from the tree that would give them eternal life.

Do I consider this unfair?
No, I do not.
God places them in the most glorious place in the universe, made special just for them, and they disobeyed him.
The sentence was much better than death.

How did they evade death?
God killed an animal as a blood sacrifice for them and then used the pelts of the animal to make coverings for their bodies.
The blood sacrifice attoned for their actions and they did not have to die.

That sounds like a gracious God to me.

grace2u

2007-01-14 06:57:29 · answer #3 · answered by Theophilus 6 · 1 0

I believe that the story of Adam and Eve is an allegory of mankind's coming to a state of self-awareness and sentience. The fruit of the "tree of knowlege" is certainly a factor in this - the notion that they became aware of their nakedness, for example, after eating the fruit tells me that they went from a state of simple existence to sentience. I don't really think of the story as untrue; to me, it is more a story to explain the concept to a people who had little scientific knowlege than a story that was intended to be believed as literal fact.

2007-01-14 06:43:40 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

When God asked Adam and Eve about what they had done He did not ask because he did not know... It is like when you are a child and you do something wrong, the parent knows fully well what the child did but they still say, "What did you do? or Don't tell me you went and did that after all we talked about!" or when a parent says, "Johnny, what are you doing......" when the parent knows full well what the child was doing.

It boils down to this.... the scene in the garden of Eden was the very first time man had to choose between God and Satan and man chose Satan which made Satan the God of this earth. We automatically belong to Satan unless we choose God/Jesus. This is why we automatically land in Hell unless we choose God. We don't have to chose Satan because we already belong to him because of the choice that Adam and Eve made. In order to belong to God we must choose him. I hope this makes sense....

2007-01-14 06:47:16 · answer #5 · answered by tas211 6 · 1 1

I think it was a story written for the times. Written today, man would have had to get some of the responsibility for his own actions since he had free will and could have said NO.

Still, doesn't seem like a very loving God to me.

2007-01-14 06:44:15 · answer #6 · answered by Sun: supporting gay rights 7 · 0 0

If it was Adam and Eve's decision to disobey God that brought sin into the world, why do we ALL have to suffer punishment?
If we are honest with ourselves, we will realize that Adam is a fair representative for all of us. If a perfect person in a perfect place decided to disobey God’s rules, none of us would have done better. Romans 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” We all inherit Adam’s sin nature. We all sin, so we all deserve to die and suffer eternal punishment in hell. We must understand that not one of us is innocent before God. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Not one of us is worthy to stand before the Creator of the universe because we would each bring a sinful, rebellious nature into His presence.
In the beginning God completely sustained His creation without blemish. That’s why it was perfect. He held every atom together in a perfect state. He kept the planets in their orbits. He kept animals from tripping and breaking their necks. He did not allow people to suffer and die.
Deuteronomy 8:4 gives us a little glimpse of how things might have been in the original creation. “Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.” God is omnipotent and perfectly capable of sustaining and protecting his creation.
When Adam sinned, however, the Lord cursed the universe. In essence there was a change and along with that change God seemingly took away a little bit of his sustaining power and allowed things like suffering and death into His creation. Now He permits bad things to happen—and this is a reminder that sin has consequences and that the world needs a Savior. Romans 8:22 says, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”

God took pleasure in all of His creation ("http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?passage=revelation+4:11&version=NKJV"), but He loved people most of all. He allowed the created universe to deteriorate so we would see the consequences of our sin. If we did not see the consequences of our sin, we would never see that we need salvation from our sin, and we would never accept His offer of mercy for our sin. Most people easily recognize that there is a problem in the world. This can be used to show them that there is one who has overcome this problem of death and suffering—Jesus Christ.

2007-01-14 09:10:19 · answer #7 · answered by Freedom 7 · 1 0

Adam and eve being the first,set the standard for what would be throughout human existence.

2007-01-14 06:43:17 · answer #8 · answered by Maurice H 6 · 0 0

That's what it said and that's what it means.

But don't forget the section where men will earn their keep by the sweat of their brows, seems a lot have.

2007-01-14 06:45:10 · answer #9 · answered by drg5609 6 · 0 0

Anyone who believes this story would do well to consult their mental health care professional about changing their medication.

2007-01-14 06:44:18 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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