God set up the conditions as a test. Adam and Eve still had free will. They could have said no to the serpent. And I don't think fundamentalists look into the Bible that deeply. They try not to ask probing questions.
how bout that Job story? anyway, i think youre not considering God as a god. he is not held to the same standard as people. thats why he can be selfish---you know, the whole glory thing. whatever he does is right, by definition, you just cant always see it.
When the Bible suggests that Adam and Eve did not know good from evil it did not mean literally that they did not know right from wrong. The passage (Gn 3:5) has a much broader meaning. It means Adam and Eve would share in the wisdom of God; in that sense they would be like God. This was a sin of pride. The snake was not a symbol of Satin; it was a symbol of wisdom. The serpent has always been a symbol of wisdom even in Greek and Roman mythology.
I agree with you there for sure. It seems that the peace/love/patience persona of God is what is looked for, whereas the genocidal maniac/rapist/narcissist persona is glossed over.
Interesting interpretation. I wonder why the writer of Genesis (allegedly Moses) made that his first point to get across?
That raises and interesting question... If man's morale code comes from God and is absolute, and God's morale code is subjective, then what is to stop God from lying to his followers throughout the writing of the Bible? Maybe he intentionally wants people to think he is the way, the truth, and the light, but it is actually Tom Cruise and Scientology?
It really sounds like you're thinking of God as an old man with a white beard, which I think is a mistake. Adam and Eve I think means man and woman literally, so it probably isn't talking about one specific guy and one specific girl. Also, I kind of believe that before eating from the tree of knowledge, man and woman were not self-conscious, in the way that animals are not self-conscious. The price of self-consciousness is the "punishment" that God ordered upon man and woman. I don't feel convinced that man and woman "stole" consciousness; it seems more likely that as man and woman became conscious they achieved free will, which was accompanied by the lying, shame, and deviousness exhibited in the garden where God lived. We really beat adam and eve up over their mistakes, but I think those weaknesses are simply a price to pay for self-consciousness. It also seems silly to take the bible literally, especially when you are reading a translation of text meant to be poetic and not necessarily specific in its original language.
I agree, but there are millions of people out there that do take it literally, like Southern Baptists and Pentacostals. That's who I like best to engage in religious discussions, because they stick to the dogma, and don't interpret other than the literal. But when you take a look at it literally, the Bible is full of contradictions and errors.
