I think that's the point that always gets ignored about Genesis. There are things that God never had any power over. The trees and free will. Genesis is a tale about a tyrant trying to keep his people uneducated. God LIES about the fruits of the tree of knowledge from good and evil: he tells them they would DIE if they ate from it. The snake comes around and tells Adam and Eve that this is a lie. And they eat the fruit, and suddenly they become truly self aware, they became knowledgable. The fruit gave them free will. And they decided to stop running around naked. And when God saw them running around with clothing, he got UPSET. And punished them by exiling them. Why? Because he was afraid there were now also going to eat from the tree of life. Then they would have been JUST LIKE HIM. He couldn't change anything about the trees, and he couldn't control free will. And that's where he got afraid and started to punish them. If you read Genesis, it really is NOT about an all-loving, all-understanding God. He is described as a powerful, but still limited creature. That has been my interpretation ever since I read that passage for the first time.
Adam and Eve did die. How do we know what would have happened had they not exercised their free will and not given into temptation? That's the lesson. Resist the temptation to give in to evil. Then the question becomes, what is evil?
The asshole god who created people who, thanks to his omniscience, he knew would do the very thing he already knew he would be punishing them for.
I don't see any evil in becoming self aware and knowledgable. Maybe that's my problem. I'm on the snake's side. Especially when I see how God sadistically and cruely punishes them afterwards for making their FIRST mistake ever. That's not what I want to see from a good leader, or father, or boss. But yeah, what is evil, and why is evil there, and why can't God do anything about it? No matter how you twist and turn it around, there is always SOMETHING that God has no power over.
An eternal life of slavery, it seems. No, the lesson is do not disobey your master, or you will be punished. A slave's morality. Apparently, disobeying the whims of a cruel, powerful master. No thank you.
"Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh." - Peter 2:18 gods totally into slavery. what a douchebag. or maybe it's an S&M thing and you're meant to pray to jebus while wearing a gimp mask.
Not hate, just criticism of an illogical storyline. How is me criticising the Bible, which I regard as a work of fiction, or a god who I believe to be a myth any different from me criticising a movie or a TV show?
Or maybe the final version is where we go when we die? I think you might've just come up with a concept of heaven that makes sense in the 21st century!
I have never come across a description of Heaven that I could endure for even 10,000 years get alone for eternity. Though some of the afterlives in Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives were intriguing.
Hatred of what? Slavery? If the Bible was a Star Trek film it would be savaged worse than Nemesis and Final Frontier combined.
I suspect that, if we really do continue in some sort of conscious afterlife, it isn't in linear time, so it doesn't feel like 10,000 years or eternity.
There's no hate in this thread, just sad amusement. Creationism is a rejection of reality. How do creationists function in society if they can't accept the fact that scientific progress surrounds them? Even if creationism were right, what good is it? It makes no predictions and offers no useful explanations. We can't build better bridges or develop better pharmaceuticals with Creationism. If it doesn't work (and it doesn't), then what good is it?
I don't see anything that qualifies as hate. And as has been pointed out before, just because you accept evolution that doesn't mean you're a non-believer.
The way I see it, God greenlighted and bankrolled the project, hired the talent, got the ball rolling and went on to the next gig. He doesn't visit the set and he doesn't take personal phone calls. God is Executive Producer of the Universe. Unless you're a big fan of hymn singing, harp playing, and telling God how great He is, I think hell would be a lot more fun.
There was nothing about the tree itself. It was a test of man's reliance on God. God just asked one thing of man and man disobeyed it. After eating of the fruit the only knowledge that man gained was the experience of evil, the experience of disobeying. Nothing else. If man had not eaten then there would be no evil, no consequences. I've read that two of the reasons God allowed man to be tempted was to give man the choice to accept or reject Him and also He know what would happen and used it to show His infinite love. Even after we rejected Him God offered Himself to take the punishment so that man could be reconciled to God.