06-15-2015, 09:28 AM
(06-15-2015, 02:44 AM)rfaulk34 Wrote: In the end, Adam and Eve had the option to do it the easy way or the hard way. You say it's illogical that God would create them the way He did, knowing they would fail; yet without the option to fail, free will doesn't exist. Free will exists so that each person chooses to accept Him, on their own. If free will was created so that they could choose, where is the logic in creating them without the ability to fail?
All that said, let's assume He knew they would fail. I've always been one to advocate personal responsibility for one's actions. Them failing, even though He created the situation isn't God's fault because they had the option to follow His instructions or not follow them. Ultimately, they choose not to do what He said. The good news is, it didn't end there. Once they fell, he created a way for them to atone. Since the original fall, He did that not once, but twice. The second time making it so easy, all you had to do was simply ask His forgiveness, when previously you had to engage in sacrificing an animal.
Where you see an irrational, illogical God, i see a God that loves man enough that he keeps making a ways for them to atone for their sins.
I'm pressed for time so I need to keep it short. You are born knowing you will die. No choice. God created Adam and Eve knowing they would fail. Failure was the only outcome. The future was fixed. Predetermination, fate, destiny, etc. God didn't ask them to choose. He asked them for blind obedience. How do you know the difference between good and evil? Between right and wrong? Your conscience. Adam and Eve were created without a conscience that's why they didn't know the difference between good/evil/right/wrong/easy way/hard way. They had no way of comprehending the serpent's deceit. They didn't choose the hard way because they couldn't understand it was the hard way.
Quote:God didn't lie to Eve. In the beginning, they were not supposed to die. After the original sin, they did. So Him telling her that she would die doesn't necessarily mean she would die right away because he said "you will certainly die" not "you will instantly die".
People who see an illogical, irrational God, focus on the situation that caused the fall or the situation that caused a fail and they ignore how God kept creating ways for man to atone for his mistakes.
One of the reasons God expelled Adam and Eve was so they wouldn't eat from the Tree of Life and become immortal. Genesis 3:22 I think. Eve was surely going to die anyway. Not right away. Not at that moment. But, eventually they were going to die whether they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil or not.
Quote:On another note, a question(s) i have is; why would so many historical men write different books on the same subject, which would eventually become one book, to the point that so many millions of people would follow it and create followings and churches(ignoring for a second how that's not necessarily a good thing--the fracturing and differences), making it such a polarizing subject over thousands of years? Where else has a story been told, in the history of man, that has had the kind of effect on civilizations that the bible has? If we're speaking of illogical, it seems very illogical to me that something(s) written over a couple thousand years would be condensed into one book and it would have the kind of effect it has had...if it were indeed, fiction.
I assume Hindus believe similarly. Or any believer in any religion. What book is responsible for more death and suffering?
