So people - here's a poser about religion versus knowledge?

Question

Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge - this part of genisis makes a good deal of sense to me and my question is this:-

Putting aside whether this story came from God or someone making up a story about what God said or even if God exists - was this story created to protect us from ourselves?

Just suppose for a moment we knew completely how our brains worked - why we are self-aware - why we dream - why we sleep & ultimately why we die - everything that makes us 'tick' & of course the really big one - why we are here in the first place - is this why we have religion in our societies - as a 'coping mechanism' until we have answers for all the things that we don't understand - and ultimately is it a bad thing for us to know all these things, because then there would be no challange for us to live our lives?

Is this what's making our society descend further and further morally & ethically?

Is our gathering of knowledge making us jaded and cynical....

Because if all of this is the case, then logically, since we have curious minds - we were doomed from the start weren't we?

We were never consulted about being born were we - some might say that having that attitude is arrogant and that you should be grateful for the great gift of life, but my point is - is there a point, or is it just a blind albeit complex mechanism we've just been born into - this thing we call life?

Are we in a ''heads I win - tails you lose'' scenario?

I'm not discounting a next life - there does seem to be some, although rather abstract evidence for this, but I'm not sure I even WANT to be tested in this life or any other - do you?

Again - a choice might have been preferable - wouldn't it?

Mel - you might be a Top Contributor, and thanks for the link, I need to look at that further, but might I suggest you learn to abbrievate words properly - I found your text pretty tough going, because of the way you abbreviate words - a tip - abbrievate the vowels but leave the consonants alone!

Answer 1

u are so "enlightened" ! what a futher muckin moron lay off the hallucinates man

Answer 2

What if you just step out of the mangroves and take a look at the scenery.
We live in a place with trillions of suns, most of which seem to have planets. The better our instruments get, the more of them we find. The better our instruments have gotten, the more we found out that interstellar space is not a vacuum, but filled with thin clouds of hydrogen and simple organic molecules and with dust and rocks.
Given that simple chemical reactions take a few femtoseconds to occur, and that there are so many energy gradients and several systems that can build complex molecules, the probability is for there to be lots of life out there.
Given that the human brain consumes a lot of energy, reduction of energy need strategies would be a positive adaptation. That has occured. Our brains have evolved to minimize enrgy consumption and will accept partial answers, or unsatisfactory answers, that sort of seem to work, just to move on.
Just examine politics and advertising habits. They back up this brain energy finding from the UCSD Linguistics Department researchers.
Now, what if you didnt make any assumptions about purpose?
What if you went from the observable to a hypothesis. Use poor old, maligned, Descartes idea and asked questions you can test, instead of spending time and imposing constraints based on hypotheses that are not testable?
The question of purpose falls away. The myths stay stories to help children fall asleep, instead of dogma that binds enrgy up in endless escapist wrangling.
Time and energy can then be used to improve the now with agreement to just admit we don't know what we don't know and focus on what we can know.
Some Indian and Chinese scholars did that and came up with a concept that combines the reality of material and non-material nature, cause and effect, and unending change
Once you accept that thereis a psychic and a physical aspect to humans, that causes produce effects, and that there is no cessation of change, you can proceed to examine life rationally, instead of being constantly entangled in the mangroves.

Answer 3

I ponder the same choice and find that I really tap these feelings when life is in the pits. You are right. Sometimes I feel like we were doomed from the get-go and have no choice to be born. You pretty much answered your own question and stirred up a lot of sentiment for the subject.
A.) pre-destination
B.) self-fulfilling prophecy
C.) Untapped human capabilities purposely inhibited to create a life of challenge and growth. It's almost like God wanted us to start with little and have the innate need to SEEK knowledge (or to SEEK Him out). Obviously we thrive on bettering ourselves and attaining a superior amount of knowledge, but I feel like sometimes its just mental masturbation. It's a lot of work and where has it got us? No closer to the truth in 3000 years than we were to begin with.

One of the best answers I can come up to kill all the birds with one stone is to just not worry about it. God reveals things to us as he feels we are ready to accept the answers. Adam and EVE demonstrated the same impatience as we all do. The tree of knowledge simply represents a short cut and cheat sheet for a test we should be studying for.

Answer 4

Not necessarily doomed from the start. It all depends on the choices we make as there are fantastic things being developed but sooner or later (pretty much always) there will be some form of temptation or the other to corrupt the original intention.

Perhaps life is a school educating your for the next?

Answer 5

An interesting question and you made me think about it. Still,
your logic seemed a bit too complicated. Since we don't live in a perfect "Garden of Eden" we have a need for knowledge. And yet, put all your knowledge to work and you will probably not be able to get all your needs met - that requires faith. I believe we need a balance of knowledge and faith.

Answer 6

i visit assume you advise Roman Catholic religious practices, as against "Roman" according to se - which could be pagan gods akin to the Greek mythological gods. The Roman Catholic custom imitates Orthodox Judaism in many techniques in ceremony and gown, on a similar time as additionally incorporating some pagan components and practices from historical Rome.

Answer 7

the story you're talking about is symbolic, and only barely at that. consider that you read a translation paid for by a king interested in keeping serfs serfs, nobles nobles and himself king. and consider the truism power corrupts, abolute power corrupts absolutely. the council of nycea didn't do the book any favors either....

Answer 8

www.virtuesproject.com
toughy one! it boils down to free will - too much of tt has led to moral decline. its the clergy tt stifle knowledge so we break away fr relig and found so called 'knowledge'.
we try to be diff fr what the clergy said and do and end up with all these hell-break-loose thingys tt defies convention and wisdom.
so its a battle of wits.
this relig divide with knowledge is bad and even einstein said tt there shld be harmony bet sci and relig which is still not in the offing. hi time clergy step down fr their hi pedestal and come to grips with realities of life and science! alas - never to come for they will be out of a job! relig is no longer a coping mech for many of us. the old religs r a bane to humanity. one has resorted to terrorism and killing in the name of the almighty - how low can one get?
i think we r created and endowed with thought and more so creative thought wh has enable us to surmount all kinds of issues and in future maybe even global warming. we hv built the great wall, eiffel tower, went to moon, climb everest - all possible 'cos we r 'thinking' .
so lets hope this will continue for us to establish an ever-advancing civilization!!
take care
thanks for the thought

Answer 9

Well, most of what you just said can be explained scientifically through research and studies and whatnot. We dream because of chemical reactions occurring in our brain, we sleep because we need to revitalize and restore energy, we die because our bodies deteriorate, and we are self-aware because we are curious.

On the other hand, Had Adam and Eve not eaten from the tree of knowledge, they would have defied the laws of human nature as God had created. God knew that they would eat from the tree, because he had created Adam and Eve to learn and strive for survival. That is why he questioned them, to see how they would react.

I think that Religion is a way for people to believe in the unknown. Some people are comfortable with the simple answer, "Because God made it so", so that they do not have to strive to learn the answers to the meaning of life. From a religious point of view, i would say that the meaning of life is to worship your God and be true to his/her name so that when you die, you will be released to spend eternity with your creator.

From a scientific point of view, i believe the meaning of life is to strive to learn all that we can, so that the Human race will manage to survive as long as possible. The will to survive, to strive for superiority over the elements and pitfalls of this earth. We are indeed doomed from the beginning by our own hand. If only they would have not eaten the apple... If we knew the *True* answer to the meaning of life, where would it come from? There are always multiple sides to every situation.

Again, religiously we are here because God wanted us to be here. That is the simple answer. People enjoy simple things that do not instigate ethical inquiries. Scientifically we are here due to a phenomenal chain of events that is statistically virtually impossible. 10 events that occurred at exactly the right time in exactly the right place in the perfect order to create life here on this earth. So you may always ask the question of, "Why are we here?". The answer will depend on your belief system, which like you suggested, may just be a way to cope with the sense of unkowingness. Or, you may choose to rely on Science. I will say it again, there are always multiple sides to every situation. So knowing these things from either point of view would either be a great achievement, or a great catalyst for a terribly tremendous chain of events. Interpretation is key.

I believe that our purpose here on this rock is to survive by any means possible. To learn is to succeed and to succeed is to be great. To be great is to be remembered.

Maybe the world is becoming cynical, but those of us who want to try and preserve what we can for the later generations of mankind are greatly outnumbered. The world will be reduced to a barren wasteland at the fault of our own hand. So yes, we were doomed from the beginning, not by God, but by our own nature. The ability to reason is what makes us different from other things on this planet. Even though God gave us the ability to reason, i do not believe he intended for us to destroy ourselves with this ability. If it were up to me, the world would be comprised of great philosophers who ate raw, organic produce everyday and who challenged the ethical standards so that we may progress forever into the bowels of time. However, that is 100% wishful thinking.

I always enjoy these kinds of questions, feel free to email me any time for a lovely chat =D