So I am still at a time when I'm thinking a lot about my beliefs. This Helios editorial will be centered upon Christianity and God again like my previous one, for all the four and a half of you that read it. I appreciate it, guys! As I said also in the last issue, at some time in the near future I will write out a long assemblage of my contemplations on the subject in the
EMM sub-forum. I've spent far too long and put too much energy into the subject to not give y'all a good reading. Anyway, the last editorial rant I...ranted was a sort of overview of the book I'm reading now called
The Reason For God by Timothy Keller, as well as people's evolution of sorts of beliefs, and why the world we live in is not so evil or wrong as Christianity would like us to believe, in my opinion. For this Helios, I will discuss God's purpose of Creation, of Man, the Tree of Knowledge, and original sin. It is a topic that confuses me, that hasn't been properly, in my opinion, explained to me in all of my years of being a Christian, something I am no more, or now as a person interested in better understanding Christian beliefs. Now, without further adieu...
You have to be from another planet to not know of Christianity's idea and story of Creation, Adam and Eve, and the Fall of Man or original sin. As a summary, God creates everything in six days, including Man, and in the Garden of Eden God also creates the Tree of Knowledge. God lets Adam and Eve do whatever they want except He gives them one single command: they cannot eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Well, the evil Devil deceives Adam and Eve into taking a bite of the fruit from the tree. Since that was against God's only command He banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and everything from that point hurtful, bad, or evil was known and to be experienced. This is Creation to the Fall of Man in a nutshell. If you want to read it for yourself then do so:
Genesis: 2-3.
Original sin is very important to Christianity because before Jesus only a select few on Earth were faithful enough to God acceptance into Heaven. Once Jesus came, everyone had and have a chance to admit they are a sinner and Jesus is their savior to forgive them of their sins, something that everyone has at the moment of birth, so is accepted by most. But the more I think about Creation with Man and the Tree of Knowledge the more I don't understand its meaning or why original sin makes sense. Let's look at Genesis 1 for some reference to begin the 'meat' of my rant. When God created the universe and God He made it all and then judged it to be "good". For example,
Originally Posted by
Genesis 1: 10, 12, 18
10And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
18And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
So we see that everything God made was "good". He looked down upon his creation and judged it to be up to His standards, which ought to be perfect. God then creates Man,
Originally Posted by
Genesis 1: 26-27
26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
While the Bible doesn't say specifically that God judged Man to be "good", although verse 31 does say, "
31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good," we should assume that this is a given. Why would God create something he would not consider so? This is one thing about the story of Creation that annoys me a bit because assumptions are a must, as is considering the story as symbolism instead of literal fact. However, in understanding Christianity one must balance the two since leaning too much one way or the other can lead to misguided opinions and beliefs on the subject. As with anything so significant and huge in scope the Bible must be truly studied in order to better understand it.
It is a wonder to me us the
purpose of God creating everything, especially Man. God already had been existing for an eternity and had His angels to worship Him. Why create a mortal universe with lesser mortal beings? To my knowledge the Bible doesn't give a definitive answer, although it has come to my understanding that God created us out of love so that we could love and praise Him. It makes more sense for an ever-existing God to create other things ever-existing - this is why angels make sense - but not a finite universe with finite things. It's as if God created everything and Man and thought, "Behold, I have created you! You will never be able to comprehend who I am but love Me." I'll not go into God's seeming oh-too-human personality in this rant, but it seems that God created everything so that He could be worshiped (more). So
why did God create? I don't know and I think it is a question that may be too difficult to answer unless some Christianity expert or theologian provides me with an adequate answer.
We now move onto the Tree of Knowledge and original sin. In Genesis 2 we learn of the existence of the Tree of Knowledge, God commanding Adam not to eat of the tree, and of God creating for Adam a woman, Eve. About the Tree of Knowledge, I am also very confused and interested in why God created it. If God is omniscient then He would know that Adam and Eve would eat from the tree and no longer be in a personal relationship with Him, be free to do anything even against His will, etc. So, if God knew all of this then He created the Tree of Knowledge for a purpose. What purpose then? This interests me greatly. Either God created it as a gift of freedom to Man, even though with dire near-eternal consequences, or as a sort of damnation. Why God would create the Tree of Knowledge to damn Man is beyond me since He created Man out of love and to worship Him, so the former position makes more sense with the overall belief of Christianity. However, a gift of freedom but damnation is hardly a gift at all and it is all too difficult to believe in a loving God that would do such a thing.
Next comes the Fall of Man. Let us remember what God commanded of Adam (Eve was not yet created),
Originally Posted by
Genesis 1: 17
17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
God gave Adam no other commandment to obey, not one more. That should have been easy to do, right? But the story gets more complicated.
Originally Posted by
Genesis 3: 1-6
1Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Oops! I guess following God's only commandment was not so easy. The serpent's identity is attributed to Satan, as we all know, and it is not all known to me how God could let Satan corrupt His creation (of Man). After all, everything was God's creation and He is more powerful than Satan so why let evil corrupt it? But as I said before, God created the Tree of Knowledge on purpose so He must have known Satan would do what he did and therefore let it happen. Is this logic melting anyone else's brains? GAH! Something else to consider is the sheer stupidity of Adam and Eve at this moment. God created them and gave them only one command...and they still screwed up. Seriously, if I was Adam and had literally everything I wanted and an all-powerful and all-loving God created me there would be no chance I would go against His will. All it took were a few words from Satan to unravel all "good" in creation. How stupid were Adam and Eve? God, the creator of everything, tells them not to eat of the tree and then some snake (
WHO THE TRUSTS A TALKING ING SNAKE?!?!?!) tells them that it's OK. Yeah, great thinking before acting Adam and Eve. Are we to believe that Man failed at the single rule God gave after Creation? That Man was so disloyal, non-compliant, so stupid as to disobey the KNOWN creator’s only command that had such dire and near ever-remaining consequences for mankind? I guess if I was God and then I saw that my creation was so utterly gullible and foolish then I'd get pissed too. I'd probably start over and make a better sentient being!
Who doesn't make dinosaurs again? Those were awesome!
Verse 6 of Genesis 3 interests me some. The Tree of Knowledge gave Adam and Eve knowledge of what good and evil were but how it is described makes it a little more interesting, although not significant to theology. Who wouldn't want to eat from a tree that, "was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise"? Why make the Tree of Knowledge something attractive in every way, God? How about make the tree ugly, bear no fruit, and have huge poisonous thorns on it? I guarantee naked Adam and Eve would stay away from it or do what any right-minded Texan does to unwanted trees, such as the mesquite in places. That is, chop it down and burn it. But of course God created the tree on purpose and knew Adam and Eve would eat from it.
So why is it Man's fault for original sin? Yes, Adam and Eve disobeyed God's only command but...they actually didn't know it was bad to do so. Remember, Adam and Eve had not eaten from the Tree of Knowledge for a time when they knew of God's command and since the tree was the only thing to give them the ability to know good and evil they did not know disobeying God would be inherently evil. Only when they ate from the tree did they know what they had done. So God condemned Man forever (until Jesus) even though they did not know their fault until after the fact. How is God loving if He did that? It makes no sense.
Let us take in all of this information, logic, and (semi-)understanding, and think about what it all means. For me it is near too difficult to do. Too much of the story of Creation and the Fall of Man doesn't make sense. God created everything, including Man and the Tree of Knowledge, commanded Adam (and Eve I guess because she said she knew about it) to not eat of the tree, but knew they would eat from it and that it would give them freedom. If God created the Tree of Knowledge on purpose, gave us freedom to choose, and then He punishes those that do not choose Him, that means He punishes some for using His gift, eternally. How is that loving? The freedom then is not a gift and God is not loving. God then condemned Man. Is that an acceptable counter argument? This is why these stories
HAVE to be taken as symbolism instead of literal truth. It makes sense for an ancient religion to have this sort story that introduces God as the creator of everything, even Man, and then explains why Man is flawed and why to be better. It also legitimized the Jews as a people because they had their Jehovah.
I can accept some Christian beliefs philosophically but when it comes to specifics of Creation and original sin things do not sit well with me. Not that I think religion or God need to explain everything, but when one of a religion's most integral concepts makes little sense to me, it makes it that much harder for me to accept it as a truth when it comes to spirituality. I hope all of this has made y'all think a lot. Remember, I don't hate Christianity or religion and I'm not attacking it. I apologize if I come off that way. I'm simply trying to figure out my beliefs by analyzing others.
Thanks for reading!
Note: I wish to reach out to everyone who posts in the EMM sub-forum. I'm getting tired of the contentious attitudes towards religious believers or religious beliefs in general. It seems that in every single topic that discusses God (or Allah or whoever/whatever) eventually has members asking for existence of God, saying there is no God, or pretty much proclaiming believers as dumb because of their beliefs. Just stop. It gets the discussion nowhere and makes you look biased and a jerk. Yeah, yeah, we understand you're an atheist. We get it. That doesn't mean you have to barge into every God topic and spew your atheist-gasm everywhere. Why don't you, you know, ACTUALLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE DISCUSSION. No one goes into the Athenaeum and says evolution isn't real because it doesn't talk about it in the Bible. Why go into the EMM and say God doesn't exist because there is no scientific evidence. There is a topic for that already that is over 200 pages long: Existence of God. Keep your anti-religious dick-waving in there. I'm not impressed anywhere else. Sure, some other threads in the EMM bring about similar discussions, but if you're only reason for involving yourself in the EMM is to bash the religious and religious views then you should learn to satisfy yourself in other ways.
Double Note: If you haven't seen HBO's miniseries
Generation Kill, AMC's
Mad Men, or FX's
Louie then you're an idiot.
And you’re fired –Ed]