why did god let adam and eve get decieved by the serpent

F

fahrenheit 451

fiction
Registered Senior Member
GE 3:1-7, 22-24:
God allows Adam and Eve to be deceived by the Serpent (the craftiest of all of God's wild creatures). They eat of the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil," thereby incurring death for themselves and all of mankind for ever after. God prevents them from regaining eternal life, by placing a guard around the "Tree of Eternal Life." (Note: God could have done the same for the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" in the first place and would thereby have prevented the Fall of man, the necessity for Salvation, the Crucifixion of Jesus, etc.)

someone please try and explain this, as it a hell of a damming verse.
however I doubt you can, unless you are going to rewrite the bible.
 
Because if He had restrained them, all the free will fanatics and liberalists alike would be screaming bloody murder for manipulating the two.
 
but according to your bible, these were the only two humans at the time, so a more feasible answer would be appreciated.
 
fahrenheit 451 said:
GE 3:1-7, 22-24:
God allows Adam and Eve to be deceived by the Serpent (the craftiest of all of God's wild creatures).
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M*W: I'll try to give this a stab. The "serpent" of Eden was not the evil creature Genesis made it out to be. In ancient times, the imagery of the serpent was that of being a wise messenger like Mercury or Hermes. The serpent in those days represented wisdom and not evil. Many figurines from that period such as the cadeuses resemble health, healing, wisdom, and all things good. In ancient Hebrew the serpent is called HWWH. In Genesis, Eve was called HWWH. In ancient Hebrew HWWH also means Wisdom. Translated from the Hebrew, HWWH was also termed YHWH which was later translated into Yahweh and later to Jehovah. What this tells me is that the Serpent, Eve and Wisdom, are all one and the same.
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They eat of the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil," thereby incurring death for themselves and all of mankind for ever after. God prevents them from regaining eternal life, by placing a guard around the "Tree of Eternal Life." (Note: God could have done the same for the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" in the first place and would thereby have prevented the Fall of man, the necessity for Salvation, the Crucifixion of Jesus, etc.)
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M*W: Like the serpent in Eden, humanity still sheds its "dead skin" when we shed our "Earthsuit" at the end of our Earthly life, thereabout bringing a new body for a new existence. The serpent was the wise one, and humanity took no fall. Adam symbolizes the Earth (Adama meaning Earth). Adam was called the Earthling, and Eve was the wisdom of the serpent. The serpent represented Eve's feminine spirituality which was attractive to the physical Earth (Adam), but Eve lead the Earth to no fall but to physical regeneration like the serpent's skin, and to the eternal life that dwells in our spirit.
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someone please try and explain this, as it a hell of a damming verse. however I doubt you can, unless you are going to rewrite the bible.
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M*W: Let's just say that this verse has another meaning for me instead of what was believed some 5,000 years ago. How can anyone believe the original meanings of translations some 50 centuries ago and mean the same thing as today? That's preposterous! There is absolutely no way that what was written 50 centuries ago could be translated directly to English today. A generation is about 20 years, and we all know how language changes from generation to generation. As far as rewriting -- I'm all for retranslation -- and I'm working on it.
 
In laymens terms!
when God made man he told him not to eat from the tree of life but at the same time he also gave man freewill. Now he could have stoped man from eating from that tree and inturn saving man from eternal sin but if he had done that then what would be the point of giving us the choice to make mistakes if he wasnt going to let us make them at all? Do u get it now?
 
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The meaning is that knowledge is a two-edged sword. You can live in paradise, but you will never know what is missing. With knowledge, another dimension is added to our lives, but with consequent difficulties. The ancients could see that animals did not suffer the same troubles as people, and this story symbolizes that break from the natural world. (It's also an excuse to oppress women)
 
If you liked that, you'll love this:

Furthermore, the apple symbolizes the hallucinogenic mushroom; which I think was the true catalyst for language development and higher abstract thinking. The garden of Eden was Africa, where climate change hastened our domestication of cattle and brought us into contact with the cattle dung-loving fungi.
(who knows, it could be true)
 
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Why did God let adam & eve get deceived by the serpent?

1) To see if adam & eve would choose to obey God's command and not eat the fruit,

2) To show His plan of salvation for man in case they disobeyed God's command.
 
The traditional interpretation has this message: obey. Eveything bad happened because someone didn't obey. But also, everything interesting happened because someone rebelled. Satan rebelled, and the serpent is Satan, right? So Satan rebelled and delivered knowledge to mankind. God had nothing in mind for us but to sit around naked and eat non-applish fruit like a monkey, so thank Satan for your humanity!
 
1) To see if adam & eve would choose to obey God's command and not eat the fruit
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This is a moot point. Let's run through it...

Upon eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve were given knowledge of good and evil. Before eating the fruit, they would have no knowledge of good and evil and as such would have no way of distinguishing a difference between god and the serpent.
 
Hmmm...good point, they couldn't have known if disobeying God was evil or not! After all, God could easily have appeared as a serpent, right? So, it would also be wrong to punish them, or be angry at them in any way.
 
Hmmm...good point, they couldn't have known if disobeying God was evil or not! After all, God could easily have appeared as a serpent, right? So, it would also be wrong to punish them, or be angry at them in any way.
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What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

God has only himself to blame for creating us as mindless drone slaves. If he would have created us with that knowledge of good and evil in the first place, we most likely would have not gone against God's word. Just look at all the troubles that can happen as everyone's mentioned by not being able to know the difference of something.

Ignorance may be bliss (heh, since Adam and Eve were zombies, the Garden of Eden could have been a total dump but they wouldn't know any better.. and this is why Heaven will seem so great once we die) but what you don't know CAN kill ya. Gee, thanks God for putting us in that predicament and thank you Satan for enlightening us*. :D (yes, I did say that SouthStar :p)

- N

* note: only if the story is 100% accurate
 
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Well, it does show the ultimate battle between two distinct forces. One of them was hellbent on keeping mankind as a mental slave whereas the other wanted mankind to have the ability to think for himself.

This holds true even to the modern day - to quote some relevant text:

"For ages, a deadly conflict has been waged between a few brave men and women of thought and genius upon the one side, and the great ignorant religious mass on the other. This is the war between Science and Faith. The few have appealed to reason, to honor, to law, to freedom, to the known, and to happiness here in this world. The many have appealed to prejudice, to fear, to miracle, to slavery, to the unknown, and to misery hereafter. The few have said, "Think!" The many have said, "Believe!" [The Gods, 1872]

Those of the 'faith' ilk conduct their lives through a happy lack of knowledge versus those who seek to improve their lives and the lives of others through knowledge.

It is the very foundation of their beliefs, taught from child to child through the ages - where knowledge is seen as something ominous and evil. This can quite clearly be seen with this quote:

"The pursuit of knowledge, unless sanctified by a holy mission, is a pagan act, and therefore vile."
Saint Bernard of Clairvauz (1190-1153)

To think that someone who says this, can be considered a 'saint'. Through the ages, the sole focus is on destroying mankinds ability to seek understanding and truth - instead thinking life works out as long as you hold your hands together or cross your fingers.

It is really sickening. The majority of conflict and pain could be avoided if people would question and search for truth, instead of the "faith" method which merely means they're right, everyone else is wrong.

Currently the world is occupied by millions upon millions of these cretins- which does not bode well for humanity as a whole.

Personally I think the serpent should be thanked for helping mankind. I would rather a life with the ability to have knowledge, to be able to think, and to understand even the most simplest of things than a life of not knowing anything except servitude. We can see just how little Adam and Eve actually knew, as written in the bible:

Gen 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised that they were naked.

Until they'd eaten the fruit they didn't even realise they were nude - so in essence no different to all the other animals on this planet. While some of you obviously prefer to remain as simple animals, I prefer, (as the bible says): having my eyes opened.

You can all remain "with your eyes closed"- and thus get closer to what god wants, but the rest of us are thankful for the knowledge we have been given.
 
SnakeLord said:
You can all remain "with your eyes closed"- and thus get closer to what god wants, but the rest of us are thankful for the knowledge we have been given.
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Im with you on that brother....can I get an Amen!! :bugeye: Ok , I'll just say right-on dude!
 
nice posts spidergoat. and i might add that there is a book titled Ishmael. while i disagree with the underlying philosophies presented, it does have interesting and surprisingly logical explanations of the biblical story of adam and eve.

You can all remain "with your eyes closed"- and thus get closer to what god wants, but the rest of us are thankful for the knowledge we have been given.
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so god wants puppets? animated dolls to amuse him? i see. because when people sit around and ponder stuff, we are no fun to watch. boring! :D
 
So what you are all saying, if adam & eve knew in the beginning the difference between good & evil, they would have not eaten the fruit? That they would have the foreknowledge to know the results of their decision if they ate the fruit?
Or maybe you are saying that disobedience (or rebellion) is good? Please explain further. Just curious. :)
 
SVRP,

The main point is that without the knowledge of good and evil Adam and Eve did not understand that disobeying God by eating the fruit was a bad thing. To then be severely punished simply because they were denied appropriate teaching before eating is an attrocious injustice.

God is seen here as pulling all the strings and clearly tricked Adam and Eve. That is not the action of a just and perfect god. But if God is not perfect and just and Christains claim he is then we have a paradox, an impossible condition with the only reasonable conclusion being that the Christain god cannot exist as defined by Christians.

Kat
 
It makes as much sense as a parent who sits a gun out for their child to get ahold of- If the biblical God found it so important that A&E not eat of the tree, why put it there to begin with? Why allow the serpent to tempt them? Why not tell A&E what the serpent was up to? Perhaps then he couldn't be seen as playing the role of hero saving them from hell, a place which HE created to begin with.
 
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