MrDarwin

As much thought as you put into your claims about the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Biff the unclean

God told them do not eat from the Tree. That doesn't require knowing that its bad, only that God said not to do it.
And you should do what God says because….because why? Because it is good to do what God says?
They didn't know what good was.
Because it is evil to go against what God wants?
They didn't know what evil was.

When are you going to give up on this truly stupid fairytale?

spurly

It all comes down to the way Jesus put it as recorded by John: "If you love me, keep my commands".

It was really all about love. If they loved God and if they wanted to continue to enjoy his presence in the Garden, and if they wanted the love of God to shower them continually, they only had to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

In the Garden it was all about living in a relationship of love with the God who created them to have a relationship of love with him. God knew that sin would mess up the relationship because he would not be able to freely hang out with the people he loved anymore. So he said - don't do it. But I am going to give you a choice. I can't make you love me, so if you don't want to love me you have an out - eat from the tree.

When it all boils down to it, the whole message of the divine Scripture is love.

Kevin

Biff the unclean

It all comes down to the way Jesus put it as recorded by John: "If you love me, keep my commands".
And Jesus was what? 3000 years after this story?

It was really all about love. If they loved God and if they wanted to continue to enjoy his presence in the Garden, and if they wanted the love of God to shower them continually, they only had to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
If you can't tell the difference between good and evil how are you supposed to know what would show love or not? How would you know the value of love? Is love "good"? No body knew what the word meant…except God.

In the Garden it was all about living in a relationship of love with the God who created them to have a relationship of love with him.
And disobeying him would be just what value compared to obeying him? Nobody was capable of knowing.

God knew that sin would mess up the relationship because he would not be able to freely hang out with the people he loved anymore.
You are over looking that God in this fable is the Creator. He made all the rules. He decided that there was to be such a thing as sin and he decided what consequences it would have. He imposed his rules on himself. He wasn't following preset rules, he was creating them.
So he said - don't do it. But I am going to give you a choice.
But he did not allow them the ability to make that choice. They couldn't know that what they were doing was evil because they had no values. Everything would have been netural. " And the eyes of them both were opened" as soon as they eat the fruit. This specifically says that their eyes were not open from the beginning but only after it was too late.
I can't make you love me, so if you don't want to love me you have an out - eat from the tree.
And if the bible even hinted at this you might get away with saying it. But it doesn't say anything about love. It says that they were punished for gaining the knowledge of good and evil. " For 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." It says that they were cast out so that they couldn't get eternal life too. It says they were cursed because they stole free will. They were cursed because they were finally something more than mindless robots.

When it all boils down to it, the whole message of the divine Scripture is love.
Gen 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
The whole message of "divine" scripture is mindless and total obedience, not love, never love.

Magus55

When you believe in God.

Hedwig

Psst! Magus55...

Magus55

And?

trillian

I think everyone wants to know more about these paintings of Jesus and other things...in the other thread. Please do tell.

MrDarwin

I'm much more curious about the Dead Sea Scrolls, which Magus seems to be an expert on.

winstonjen

Let me get this straight. If we profess a belief in god, you'll piss off and stop bothering us. Hmm. That almost makes it worth converting. Not quite, though.