In past posts I have placed God on trial by questioning two issues: 1) The issues in the Graden of Eden, and the severe punishment of the entire human race for a very minor act of eating fruit. 2) God ordering the extermination of entire cities, including every last man, woman, child, baby, and even livestock.
Results: The result on this forum have be mixed as expected, but showed a range from suport to tryuionmg top explain these events with reasoning, logic, or plausibilities. Some felt that I might be losing my faith. Others felt that I was being hon.mest in facing tough issues, though it could affect my basic faith.
I also asked these questions on some private forums, where the issues were not directly addressed, but instead my faith was either condemned as unchristian, or that I was risking harming the faith of the weak by posting my concerns in public. But in no case have the issues been addressed with clear thinking or some solid realistic answers.
Literalistic View: Obviously, if one takes the Bible literally on these accounts, then the issues become almost impossible to answer. So, I have been battered at times in private forums with the claim that I am falling into the 'literalists' trap by "insisting" that the Bible be taken literally. This is not so, because I have never insisted on anything. I am just looking for some answers, regardless of how it might happen to take shape.
Non-Literalistic View: The respondents on private forums have insisted that the Bible needs to be viewed in a non-literal way, by claiming that the account of Adam and Eve is allegorical to teach a lesson or principle. Likewise, the accounts of ancient Israel's battles that resulted in extermination of certain cities and tribes should be taken as embellished war stories where God really did not authorize such extreme actions. In otherwords, these accounts are about over zealous Jewish soldiers who ascribed responsibility to God in order to justify their actions, and to justify that God was obviously blessing their victories. Fair enough, although that is all that is ever given to me, and no real substantive discussion about how we as 21st Century Christians can reconcile this into reality.
Problems with Allegorical Views: There are still some glaring problems with the claims that these accounts are mere allegorical lessons of principles. God's creation of the human race is not in dispute. God making the rules and being in control is also not in dispute. Here are my continued concerns:
1. So, why then, if the account of Adam and Eve is allegorical, do we sin, get sick, grow old and Die? Is the promise of life eternal in some perfected state also to be understood as allegorical? Did Adam and Eve cause our fall into sin and death? If so, then in what way did they do this IF the genesis record is allegorical?
2. Why such a severe punishment on innocent unborn children, regardless of whether genesis is literal or allegorical? Why do we have to suffer such a destiny simply because an allegorical Adam and Eve felt they had to do whatever their allegorical act was? Our condemnation seems to me to be rather ludicrous, because it shows that God puinishes the innocent for the sake of the guilty.
3. But, when I have made these counter arguments, it gets tossed back at me on some private forums that I am forgetting that the account of Adam is allegorical and I am making a literal applicaltion that does not fit. Okay, then explain why I feel aches, pains, aging, sickness, and the literal fact that I will one day fall into death the same as every human that has ever lived? That is very literal and real, is it not, or is this life all a mere allegory, saomewhat like the Christian Science philosophy that this is all a dream?
My Request: Am I making sense with my concerns? And, if so, can anyone provide some substantive discussion to help resolve and reconcile the serious contradictions between what a loving God and Father is supposed to be, and what in literal fact he has either directed, or at least permitted? What is going on here with God? Anyone care to take a stab at this?
JW viewers please don't bug me with you insistence about darkness befalling an apostate. And Fundy types, please don't hammer me with dozens a Bible citations. I have read the Bible many times, and studied each and every book. A few soldi verses may help, but I am looking for substantive, realistic, facts about my concerns, and not a lot of nice sounding plausibilities and platitudes. - Amazing