Atheist and Christians??? answer my question about genesis.?

Question

dont give me the answer that "its gods mind so we dont"

Answer 1

What's the point of life without free will? He made us so we could love Him and commune with Him... but is there really love if we're forced to love Him? That's kinda like a high school team winning a soccer game against a bunch of little kids - pointless. You know it's going to happen every time because the high schoolers are bigger and more skilled. God didn't want us to be puppets that just do as He says, He wanted us to be creatures that exist in a world of our own with the choice to love Him. Did He know we were going to choose sin? Yes. But did that stop Him from giving us the choice? No, because He knew He would send His Son Jesus to redeem us.

God loves us more than anyone could comprehend, and part of that love is giving us the choice to choose Him, or choose death.

Answer 2

Its a massive flaw in logic, if it was a test, god know everything, so he knew they would eat it, so by putting it there he made them sin. So basically god is a know it all who enjoys torturing everyone like a child with a magnifying glass.

Answer 3

God could just make everyone be worship Him, but God does not want to have drones that are forced to praise Him. God wants us to make a choice to desire what is good and pleasing to Him. To be disciplined away from selfish wants and desires because we want to please Him gives God Glory that is worth more than a forced situation. Our own very nature to be selfish or self serving gets in the way of our ability to serve others and be obedient.

Many people just can not give that up. God wants people that see His ways and value what is right and not long for the ways of this world.

Answer 4

Don't think about it too much. It's not real anyway. Like most of the Bible and other religious texts it doesn't make any sense.

Answer 5

I always thought it was because he wanted to see if Adam and Eve would be obedient to him.

Answer 6

Fair questions that have been asked over and over again.  No one will give you a good, satisfactory answer.  Their favorite is that you are NO ONE to question God.  You can't even begin to understand his infinite wisdom, blah, blah, blah.

I've asked this before with no real responses.

Answer 7

Why do you ask questions that you already know the answer to?  I won't be back to check, so if you have a smart remark, email it to me.  I'll get around to it tomorrow.

Answer 8

to put it simply god is a jerk.

Answer 9

Forbidden fruit: Prankster with a flare for practical jokes?

2nd question - see answer 1.

3rd q: I'm guessing it's because it's a fairy tale with a punch line, not a logical conundrum.

4th q: yes? fairy tales are like this you know - even modern ones.

5th q: see answer 3.

6th q: right.

7th q: he has a plan? :)

8th q:I thought the humans WERE the evil. Oh yea, ok - fairy tale again.

9th q: see answer 1.

10th q: "I missed one! MUAHAHA! Get him for me, will ya?"

11th q: nah, his plan was to make the world a warm place so satan (which he also invented could move in). - Plan almost accomplished - just a little bit left of the polar caps.

Pointers: well, he invented everything, including evil, so I guess noah's ark was his Spring Cleaning.

And - I just love the logic behind punishing Eve and all the coming females because she tricked Adam into eating it. Great logic - the snake however, who tricked Eve, AND was invented by God probably got a bit of extra candy for a job well done.

BUT - it's just bs so who cares. It's for people who rather want stories to end nice than deal with the real world and solve the actual problems.

Answer 10

Ever heard of "A person convinced against their will is of the same mind still?" I was once a 'non-beliver' and searched for answers becuase I did not want to believe all the so called 'fairy tales' etc.

I feel that no matter what one says here (and there are a couple of ok responses) you will continue beliving what you will. I understand that you don't want to understand - I've been there...the bible itself says that it is not a popular message.

Answer 11

Do you like to be loved by those whom you love? Have you heard that God is love? God is love and out of his love he created humans. But he wanted to be sure that they love him back. That is why he planted the tree of knowledge in the garden, to test them. Though he knew that they would eat it, he could have not done so. But then, Adam and Eve are not proved to be obedient. Unless someone tells you something to do, how can he know whether you are obedient or not? In the case of God, he does not need to test anyone to know his identity. Since he knew that Adam and Eve would disobey him, He could have ousted them from the garden without testing them. But the test was done in order to convince Adam and Eve, how weak and disobedient they were. If God did not plant the tree there, Adam and Eve could not have been tested. They were tested and they immediately proved that they did not love God. BUT GOD LOVED THEM.

Though Sin separated man from God, he wanted to reconcile. He wanted to reconcile with us just because of his love for us. He wanted an obedient being on earth to save mankind. Since no man could be found obedient and innocent, he had to send his son on earth to take up that job. He willingly did it and became the savior of this world.

It will make sense only when you come to God with a clean mind. You can not understand a thing, unless you cleanse up your mind.

Answer 12

Have you ever noticed that all babies are born with genitals.  Yet an infant is not physically or emotional mature enough to use them as intended.  They are to grow, learn, mature, and develop in their understanding of personal relationships, marriage, family, etc until the day comes when they are ready to understand and use their genitals as God intends.

To have s*x forced on to them before that time is a crime, that usually damages not only the child, but can pass on "issues" to their children, grandchildren and beyond as their "damaged" concept of s*x is handed down.

I suppose God could have waiting until a human was 18, and then suddenly have their gender appear.  But then they would not been able to experience gender related development for all the time before that, and be ready for s*x.

So God intended that man would one day eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  But not until he had had time to teach man what good and evil were all about.  He did not wait them forced to make moral decisions until they had the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual maturity to handle them.  But he left the tree there because, just as experience gender related issues before s*x prepares you, so experience moral decisions (such as not touching one item in the whole world) was designed to prepare them to understand moral decisions and right/wrong (good/evil).  

The problem was that they choose to eat of the tree before they were right.  And it caused a warping of their understanding of good and evil that has been passed down to their children, grandchildren, and all the generation since.

Could God have placed a fence around it?  Not and still had man be able to grow to the point where he would have been able to eat the fruit correctly, any more than he could hid your gender for 18 years and then have you ready to cope with it.

As for Noah, if you read the opening six verses of the story (in Genesis chapters 6-9) you will see that the problem was that some of the "sons of God" (who we are told later in scripture were fallen angels (demons) ) had intermingled with the "daughters of men" (humans) and brought into the gene pool DNA that was deforming humans and threatening the extinction of the human race. The purpose of the flood was to remove all those who had the contaminated genetics, and to get rid of the sin nature within man.  Noah and his children carried that over with them. (Read about the drunkenness and rape that followed the flood.)  But it did succeed in getting rid of the genetics, which was its purpose.  So nothing in the Noah story has anything to do with the spiritual salvation of a man's heart.

Answer 13

Your question about Genesis - I always saw it as a parable to explain to people (in those times) that if there is such a thing as a God, then that is how evil came into the world. Another answer could be the concept of Free Will and wanting to test the obedience of man and how far it would go.

The first one (to me) makes sense, but still leaves the story horribly flawed (such as God should have known  - meaning either God doesn't know everything, or else God did know and he still put it there for some reason). I don't accept the "God's plan" argument for a couple of reasons - one being that its' a bit of a cop-out, and secondly because if we claim that, we are to claim that we can have conscious knowledge of the intentions of a deity, a being supposedly far greater than the sum of humanity itself.

The second one makes no sense. I think it was Immanuel Kant who argued that Free Will cannot exist alongside an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving deity (basically, if god was all those things, then it'd know what you're about to do, prevent you from doing them and then set you on the path to love of some description - but apparently, he didn't).

As to the Noah/Jesus question - it's a common philosophy that God allowed Jesus to be sacrificed to bear all sins. However, that makes no sense. Now not going with the scriptural arguments AGAINST the sacrifice (yes, they exist within the Bible), it is believed that God needed a blood sacrifice to undo one of his own laws - if God were both all-loving and all-powerful, then it is unlikely he would have needed a blood sacrifice, something that was seen as an abomination by God (revealed in the commandments and stories laid down to Moses) - supposedly.

I always felt though that Genesis was meant as a story, just as Pandora's box was to the Greek - there to explain something that needed an answer. However, it really isn't sufficient in this modern age.

Blessings and Toodles

Answer 14

The fruit serves as a plot device to advance the story into its main plotline. The whole scenario amounts to entrapment, as the only reason the fruit was created was so they would eat it.

Answer 15

So that they could have a way to show that they loved God. If someone loves God then they will obey his commandments.

Answer 16

But they were not innocent children. Grown people. Free will is to see if they would listen to Him. They had the whole garden full of fruit, beauty and anything they wanted. All He asked was for them not to touch it. Like people who are poor and work in banks as tellers. They are told, this is not your money, don't touch it if you do, you're going to jail. Well they can either listen or not. That is up to them. He did not know Adam and Eve would eat the fruit. He trusted them. Gave them Free Will. Yet, if you read on. You'll see that even though they did this sin. But He clothed them. It hurt Jehovah in his heart. And Adam blamed Eve for it all. Also, Jehovah does know all. They were perfect, he was making something wonderful for man kind. He loved Adam, and this is why he gave him a wife. Jehovah does not watch every thing. We have privacy. He could, but He does not. And Noah? well he found favor with Jehovah God. And all those other people could have been saved too, they choose not to. They laughed at Noah, treated him very badly. We are a family of 7 million. Think of Noah, he was alone accept for his sons, and their wives. And his wife. Yet, he stood against them. Those people had time to change and become followers. But, they choose to keep drinking, parting, and doing as they wanted to. Its not a puzzle and really it does make sense, if you read the bible and meditate on it. Not just skip from verse to verse. Like people now. They read one or two verses don't like what they say and they are gainst it all together. Or they will take one or two and make a huge mess of it. You have to read them all, understand who Jehovah used to write the words/scriptures, and what was going on at the time. Jehovah didn't have to write anything. He did this out of love for us as his servants. The love he shows us, the patience, compassion, and most of all allowing us to pray to him at anytime. And there is never a doubt of him hearing every prayer. His son was sent here to die for us. Because Adam as being the perfect man. A perfect man had to be sacraficed. John 3:16. To show how much love Jehovah God truly has for us. Mere humans. People look at all this as something bad. I see it as wow, how much Jehovah God truly loves us. And look what He as given for us. And he didn't have to. The only thing Jehovah God can't do is Lie. I hope this helps. And please, read more of the bible. Not just a few passeges. And don't look at it as something cruel. But, something wonderful. Jehovah gave us a second chance. One last thing. If Jehovah had of just distroyed everyone, and every thing. How would the Angels of felt of Him? Look at how many satan has managed to follow him. So now the angels are seeing that Jehovah is proving satan to be the liar, and life distroyer that he is. Job proved satan wrong ,and a liar. And the angels seen this. And Job didn't have the bible to follow. Yet, he showed his love for Jehovah God. Have a great day!

Answer 17

were finite beings, so theres no point in trying to figure out a design that was created by an infinite one, some things are to complex for understanding.

Answer 18

There is more to this story than God is telling us.

Answer 19

"I always thought it was because he wanted to see if Adam and Eve would be obedient to him."

Wouldn't God already know that? First of all, he MADE them so he knew exactly how they worked. It's not like he unwrapped them from a box and flicked the 'on' switch.

Secondly, isn't God supposed to know everything? Even someone who DOESN'T know everything at all would have realized there was a substantial chance curiosity would cause them to do something like this.

To stake the destiny of the entire human race on this is incredibly irresponsible.

"Did He know we were going to choose sin? Yes. But did that stop Him from giving us the choice? No, because He knew He would send His Son Jesus to redeem us."

Well... I am frankly speechless.

So... God set it up so he would eventually have the opportunity to have his beloved son nailed to a tree?

Answer 20

he wants all to suffer and he would not be a worshipped if mankind did not need saving

Answer 21

When the misogynistic men who wrote the bible wrote that particular story, it was as a means of making sure that women would become submissive to men by believing that men had dominance over them.

Answer 22

Look, Adam and Eve were not 'little innocent children'.  According to the Bible  they were perfect human beings, adults, and probably infinitely smarter than you or me.  

God gave them thousands of trees.  Of Every tree they could eat, including the Tree of Life itself.

He just kept one for himself, which was his right to do.  He wanted Adam and Eve to keep this one rule out of their love for him.  

Now about Jesus.  This goes back to the garden again.  Adam sinned against God (basically called him a liar and an unfit father).  He was perfect.

According to Mosaic Law (an eye for an eye) another perfect human being was required to prove to the universe (angels, demons, humans) that a perfect human can and will live his life according to God's rules.  It wasn't so much that Jesus' death was important (as christendom makes it out to be) but his Life.  He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that man can do the will of God, and more importantly proved Satan was the liar not God.  Therefore all humans deserve a chance to live forever as was God's original plan.

This is how I look at the writings in the Bible and make sense of them.  There a millions of other explanations out there, but I like this one the best, as it is more 'logical' than the rest.

Answer 23

Katy, if he is all knowing, he would have known whether or not they would have been obedient.

Answer 24

You want an atheist answer as to "why god...?"OK.He didn't.Genesis and the entire bible are false

Answer 25

Genesis is just a fairy tale.  

Answer 26

Asking questions such as that and getting either no answers or ridiculous, irrational answers is why I became an atheistic Agnostic, and I was a very firm, staunch, unmovable one. Until I ran into the Baha'i Faith. Leave the Baha'i Faith out of the picture and atheism makes a great deal of sense. Put the Baha'i Faith back into the equation and atheism falls flat on its face. I could give you a very deep spiritual and philosophical answer with which I am certain you would agree, but it would take up more space than Yahoo allows. The short version is there is a tremendous amount of significance and truth in Genesis, even if you look at only the first few chapters, but it is not meant to be taken literally. Lessons to be learned and lessons given on the level of the people to which they were given. While all religions came from God, there is only one religion that is completely appropriate and acceptable for our time. That is the Baha'i Faith (founded 1844). In the Baha'i scripture every question I ever had, and in the Faith itself every problem I ever had with religion was answered far more perfectly and rationally than I ever dreamed possible.

Baha'i Ocean may well be the best multi-religion study aid available for any price and yet it is free. It covers nine religions and you can customize it to your hearts content. I have included it as one of the links below.

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Sciences of former ages and philosophies of the past are useless today.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 224)

The fourth teaching of Bahá'u'lláh is the agreement of religion and science. God has endowed man with intelligence and reason whereby he is required to determine the verity of questions and propositions. If religious beliefs and opinions are found contrary to the standards of science they are mere superstitions and imaginations; for the antithesis of knowledge is ignorance, and the child of ignorance is superstition. Unquestionably there must be agreement between true religion and science. If a question be found contrary to reason, faith and belief in it are impossible and there is no outcome but wavering and vacillation.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 239)

God has given man the eye of investigation by which he may see and recognize truth. He has endowed man with ears that he may hear the message of reality and conferred upon him the gift of reason by which he may discover things for himself. This is his endowment and equipment for the investigation of reality. Man is not intended to see through the eyes of another, hear through another's ears nor comprehend with another's brain. Each human creature has individual endowment, power and responsibility in the creative plan of God. Therefore depend upon your own reason and judgment and adhere to the outcome of your own investigation; otherwise you will be utterly submerged in the sea of ignorance and deprived of all the bounties of God. ... We must not be content with simply following a certain course because we find our fathers pursued that course. It is the duty of everyone to investigate reality, and investigation of reality by another will not do for us.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 76)

The Jews await the Messiah, the Christians the return of Christ, the Moslems the Mahdi, the Buddhists the fifth Buddha, the Zoroastrians Shah Bahram, the Hindus the reincarnation of Krishna, and the Atheists - a better social organization! Baha'u'llah represents all these, and thus destroys the rivalries and the enmities of the different religions; reconciles them in their primitive purity, and frees them from the corruption of dogmas and rites.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v1, p. vii)

There can be no doubt whatever that the peoples of the world, of whatever race or religion, derive their inspiration from one heavenly Source, and are the subjects of one God. The difference between the ordinances under which they abide should be attributed to the varying requirements and exigencies of the age in which they were revealed. All of them, except a few which are the outcome of human perversity, were ordained of God, and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose. Arise and, armed with the power of faith, shatter to pieces the gods of your vain imaginings, the sowers of dissension amongst you. Cleave unto that which draweth you together and uniteth you.

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 217)

Answer 27

A. The plural form for atheist is "atheists"

B. It even make lesser sense for people to even believe in it. But then, like the christians I know, they will call it "Metaphor".

Answer 28

It doesn't make sense because it's not meant to be literal. It's a poem.