Cris,
If the A & E story is literal then it would seem that Adam gave in to temptation and disobeyed God. But there is a paradox in the genesis story since it was the tree that gave the knowledge of good and evil that was forbidden. The catch-22 is that Adam could not have known it was bad to disobey (to sin) before he had eaten and gained the knowledge to tell good from bad. No Christian has been able to satisfactorily explain this yet. It is really just a poorly considered piece of fiction so I propose we ignore it.
They were tempted by Satan, and for that he was 1)punished and 2)hell was created for his destruction.
au contraire about the tree of knowledge... Since they had no concept of good or evil, their obedience to their creator should have been natural and complete with nothing to distract it. This is probably where Faith was born - when you are young and your parents tell you not to do something, you have to believe them or not. I know "I didn't know it was wrong" didn't hold up against
my parents... Whatever Adam and Eve lacked, they certainly knew God and owed Him their existence and loyalty.
f we consider A & E as symbolic and ignore the paradoxical aspect of the story, then the story implies that man has an overtly easy tendency to be tempted and to give in to that temptation. But isn’t this God’s problem since in this scenario man was designed by God in his image? The essentially sinful nature of man right from the beginning appears to be a serious design flaw. Why must man be held responsible for that?
Man is responsible for the
choice. The consequences for the real Tempter was hell. Unfortunately, A&E chose to lie, hide and accuse instead of coming clean. They knew the difference between good and bad by that time. The natural consequence of their stealing from God and nature was having to give something back (labour and sacrifice). But God made it possible to still have a relationship with him even though we had become tainted by sin and unable to be in His presence anymore.
We are still put before that choice. The problem is that some people have ceased having
any relationship with God, and persue sin as if they were the devil themselves. Whether we resist temptation or give in to it is still a direct reflection on our obedience to God. That it isn't easy to always resist temptation is a fact - which is why we need God's leadership, grace and salvation that much more.
Let’s say that there isn’t a flaw in the design in which case why would man choose actions that would cause him and the rest of humanity so much pain and agony? Isn’t this an issue of poor education? If God had adequately instructed man on the serious consequences of sinning then he would be able to avoid sinning altogether. The issue in this scenario is that God is an inadequate educator.
The simple answer is that we chose/choose to listen to 1)lies 2)ourselves and 3)
not God. The truth is that it probably isn't causing people more "pain and agony" now than it did then. As
Mystee said, we mostly aren't aware of all the consequences. But the consequences of deceit, immorality, hatred, etc. we
should recognize by now - yet there still are people who don't, or simply have no qualms over their role in the pain and suffering of others.
Some teachers would tell you that an educator is only as good as his pupils' eyes and ears.
If we forget A & E altogether and agree that man evolved then it is not difficult to see that man’s nature is in a state of development and is still influenced heavily by primeval and primitive instincts. Our solution will be from science through psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience. The issue of sinning of course is meaningless since to sin means to disobey God, and if we evolved then he wouldn’t be our creator and we would owe him no allegiance.
It often surprises me to see how all "advancements" in the fields you mention point to things some understood intuitively. Morality vs. AIDS, good parentage vs. abuse, love vs. hate. The difference usually lies in the way we define it as opposed to the way the Bible defines it. Humanity are still a long way away from "ripping off the limb that causes you to sin" or recognizing "adultery by looking at a woman lustfully". I am a lay student of psychology myself, and agree with the Biblical perspective "know thyself" . We are advancing to a moral prespective on a human situation that shows less and less repect for moral virtues. Some religions and many people (especially parents) overcorrect by making rules and laws to preserve what they perceive as lost. Refer to the laws of the OT... it all serves to point out what we understand as wrong. As Paul said: "The Law exposes sin".
It seems to me that we are filling the gap left by
practise with
knowledge and overcorrecting
enforcement/indoctrination.
If we don't return to God, there is no way we will ever achieve these ideals. If only because we are in denial about what is wrong. Unfortutely since their is no Politically Correct way of finding God, we substitute "salvation" with other gods: ourselves (through whatever kind of enligtenment), others (through whatever kind of indoctrination or force) and yes, even our perception of God changes to serve our will.
Any way you look at the issue of sin or original sin that is used to justify the existence of Jesus and Christianity we always find that God must be the route cause or more likely doesn’t exist and that the basis of Christianity is fraudulent. ...
So who was Jesus talking to when he was on Earth? He allegedly prayed many times, and when he was on the cross and asked why God had forsaken him, then was he just idly talking to himself or was he in need of psychiatric help, I hear schizophrenia is a real bummer?
Jesus is the Word of God become flesh (Cris, was it you who pointed out my interspersed religious affirmations? Just my version of subliminal messaging
) As a physical being, Jesus was "less" than God by
nature, but
not in authority or essence. As a mortal man, he had to use language, pray, have faith. That is what makes him such a perfect example. God's association with humanity became complete to the last detail - this makes it so much more significant that he chose to be a servant, enduring suffering and sadness, and had enough faith in God to follow His will even until it feeled as if God had indeed forsaken Him (a feeling everybody can identify with).
But in retrospect we know that God
had not forsaken Jesus, but raised Him from death and glorified him. With this knowledge, our faith has been made complete, because we know something as history, which Jesus and everybody before him could only know by faith - that God has shown us mercy and promised salvation.