The whole punishment scene after Adam and Eve ate that godsforsaken apple always seemed kind of an overreact from God to me.
I mean he creates a new species and puts the tree in the middle of the garden where they lived and warns them not to eat from it.
Satan, taking advantage of their naivety, tempts them to eat the apple. And they fell for it.
But what kind of understanding did they have of disobeying and of its consequences in order to receive such a scolding from God?
I, mean they were basically children next to God. They were a still young species in this world.
If a kid breaks something or hurts someone it can't be held accountable of its crimes, because it still can't have a proper understanding of good and bad.
Same thing applies to that couple. Did they really know what they were doing? And did they deserve to be kicked out of Eden and become mortal and a subject to disease, death and wickedness? I think not. God was too harsh. What is amazing is that we are still paying the tool today. We still die, suffer, get sick, have hunger, war....
#Edit: they actually only got the ability of distinguishing good from bad after they ate the apple so they were more like children then we know. If we were able to time travell and talk with them before they ate from the tree and told them that it's okay for us to slap each other when someone fucks up something, they would probably believe it.
Doesn't that make God an insensible and horrible creature, for being so harsh with his children, that were just recently created?
I tend to agree with you. God might have played that whole situation out a little bit too harshly. You bring up a good point. Were Adam and eve honestly aware of the consequences they were to receive if they disobeyed God? I mean were any of gods first children really aware of hell or Satan? We Are aware that God sent Lucifer, then an angel, down to earth. Where he made his domain in hell. Was that explained, or witnessed by Adam or eve? I mean were they made aware of the consequences but it just doesn't tell us in the bible? There's many what ifs.
The idea of Satan being in the actual garden of Eden isn't a new idea. In fact in early interpretations of the bible we're made aware of a third person being in Eden. Lilith. She was said to be many things cause it never stated who she was. But the best interpretation and most popular theory is she was Satan incarnate. So we know, for a fact, that if Eden did exist, Satan was most certainly there. We know why he tricked them, we know why they ate the fruit, we know the consequences, but do we know the whole story? Genesis is a vaguely written book. Especially when it comes to how earth came to be. So should we believe it? I mean honestly the bible was written by man. In order for it to be any sort of reliable, man would have had to witness it. Correct? How did somebody witness the creation of earth? How did somebody witness the garden of Eden? I mean of course there's theories. Like God spoke to man and relayed the events. So if God talks to us today what do we call it? Schizophrenia.
The bible is chock full of mistakes. All of which can be interpreted many ways. The honest part about the bible is that there is no part which can't be skewed to fit ones beliefs. I mean there's a verse that says "upon my hands have I engraved your names." That was said by Jesus. People today say that means Jesus had tattoos. And many say that tattoos are a form of defiling ones temple, or body and therefore a sin. So does that verse mean Jesus had tattoos? And that it's now ok to have tattoos? It's up to you.
You're right though. Adam and eve were very much like children. They knew not of what the consequences were. To think that today most protestant faiths will tell you a child is born innocent and cannot be condemned to hell. They also say that we're all born sinners. Think of that, born innocent but are sinners from birth? Yaaaa, but anyhow. If Adam and eve knew no better, just as a child is innocent, so shouldn't they have been as well? It's a great argument.
Thanks for your insight. I love the points you made.
This reminds me of my Philosophy classes
God it omniscient, meaning he knows all, he sees every path. All of it. Meaning that he already knows what you will do with your free will. Which all seems counter productive doesnt it? If the end goal is to send you to heaven or hell, and he already knows whats gunna happen to you, isnt that just redundant?
Also. He's omnipotent. Meaning he can just do whatever he wants whenever he wants. This also brings up the moral implications of what god chooses not to do. What he is "seemingly alright with".
This thought process makes you question the morality of god himself, whether he is just or unjust. But who have we based our morals off of for thousands of years? The 'gods'.
How much sense does it make that an unjust or benevolent yet uninvolved god may decide where we end up, or subject us to his Atonement anyhow
It's completely counterproductive to say "I am creating a species who will be my children. But I'm telling you now, being my children or not, I'm gonna send some of them to hell." What? I would never condemn my own children, even if they did grow to be killers. Wtf? How is it productive to create something, knowing it will fail, but just go ahead and create it anyway. If we were like that we wouldn't be where we are today. I mean look at us for example. We are all, or mostly all, suicidal. We take time to study, perfect and complete our methods. If we set out to fail sometimes, we would simply just go ahead and act knowing there's a 95% fail rate.
In the essence that God is morally corrupt we discover his high authority. Isn't it just easy to abuse authority? I mean if God is omnipotent, then he is just plain lax in his responsibilities. We don't dare question God because we fear his powerful hand. Honestly though, when we do dare to judge him, it feels good doesn't it. Is this how he feels when he plays cat and mouse with our eternity? One might venture to say yes. So what is he alright with? Is he airtight with making us suffer so bad that we end up taking our own lives? And then sending us to hell because of it? Really? Does that make any sense Christianity?
Shit man. God help us all. ;)