I am with Farkel and Ian Anderson on this subject.
"In the beginning, man created God .........."
Was Man A Failed Creation Or...?
by Tired of the Hypocrisy 14 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Matthew 46:79
Very good question
According to the Popol Vuh (The Mayan *Holy book*)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh#Creation_myth
"Their first attempts proved unsuccessful. They attempted to make man of mud, but man could neither move nor speak. After destroying the mud men, they tried again by creating wooden creatures that could speak but had no soul or blood and quickly forgot him. Angered over the flaws in his creation, they destroyed them by tearing them apart. In their final attempt, the “True People” were constructed with maize."
If I recall correctly from reading the book, the first ones were destroyed with a flood. ALso there are supposed events in the past that completely whiped out some or all(?) life.....
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Narkissos
I mean that at the end of each creative day the Creator looked back upon the work of that day and said that, "It was good". All except for the day that man was created. It seems that after making Adamn and Evil He never said, "It is Good."
You seem to have missed 1:31: "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day."
There is neither "fail" nor "fall" in the first Genesis creation story (and there is no room for it "afterwards" either). It ends with mankind as it is (including sex and procreation, which is specifically "blessed") and declares it all "very good" -- as it is. Nothing could be more alien to it than the idea of "original sin".
The Eden story (2:4b--3) is not to be read as the "next chapter" of humankind. It is another story, starting again from the beginning of "creation," and a completely different one in practically everything. But it is not about "sin" or "fall" either. In that story man doesn't "fail" anything, to the contrary he succeeds much better than Yhwh would have expected, or wished.
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kurtbethel
Genesis 1 is an account of the Elohim and their creation.
In chapter 2 YHWH goes off and sets up his own project of planting a garden and building people from raw materials at hand. It is not clear from the account if YHWH is one of the Elohim, or a rebel faction, or non aligned, but he apparently does his own thing and thinks he is the only game in town.
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sd-7
Man is not a failed creation--if anything, man is doing exactly what he was designed to do: operate with the power of free will. God just chose to step back and let us fall on our collective faces. For a few millennia. I say that in the least cynical way possible, really. I believe he has given us the opportunity to experience the consequences of our decisions, until the day comes, one way or other, when we finally make right decisions and learn to cooperate with each other and with Him.
Small Along the Watchtower,
SD-7