The Story of Adam and Eve, Sexist, Egotistical and Guilt-Inducing

by sabastious 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  ziddina

  Not trying to debate, Sabastious - not consciously, that is...

  I never could get my head around that whole "The Bible IS the WORD OF GOD" thing, once I figured out that (a) the god(s) of the bible had no clue as to what an erupting volcano really was, and (b) that the bible is one of the YOUNGEST 'holy' (set of) books/systems of worship on the face of the planet...

  How ANYONE can give serious credence to an upstart, "Johnny-come-lately" religion is totally beyond me - and I think my inability to understand people who continue to worship the 'god(s)' of the bible even AFTER they find out it's a combination of much older religions - the latest "thing on the block", so to speak - that's just WAAAAY beyond me... To think that the "true" 'god/goddess' of this planet WOULDN'T be available from the beginning - in the OLDEST religions - goes against all common sense and sensibilities - for me, at least...

  Does that clear up where I'm coming from??? Zid
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  sabastious

  yup :)
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  Terry

  I use to spend a lot of time talking about Adam and Eve.

  I've pretty much decided it can be a vast waste of time to do so.

  Yet, look who's posting on an Adam and Eve topic?!

  I think about Adam and Eve this way.

  The weren't born. You can't be fully human if you weren't born.

  They had no mother to hold them, breast feed them, sing to them or teach them things. That isn't human either.

  They didn't have a family life as children playing with other children, no community of families, no social network of aunts, uncles, cousins.

  That isn't human either.

  Neither Adam nor Eve had a lifetime of making small decisions and being corrected by a loving elder caretaker who'd teach them how to make good decisions and avoid bad ones. That isn't human.

  They never stood in the same space with a father and mother as the objects of adoration, pride and familial acceptance. That just isn't human either.

  Adam and Eve were freaks of nature, deprived of intimacy and social stability with no past, no guidance and no humanity. THEY WEREN'T HUMAN.

  Compare that to Jesus and you'll see a big difference.
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  sabastious

  I like that, Terry.
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  Doug Mason

  zid,

  It is possible that the Israelites always were hill dwellers of Canaan, and that their priests created stories to make out that God had given them the land they were now occupying. Hence stories such as Moses and Joshua.

  Doug
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  Pistoff

  Burn, I thought you were catholic; catholics still follow the Augustine view of Adam and Eve, that their sin made us all sinful, right?

  How do you align this with seeing Adam and Eve as allegorical? Is our sin then allegorical, and do we need an allegorical sacrifice?
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  mindmelda

  Thank you Doug. Sadly, I learned more from a Rabbi (a reformed rabbi from Jackson WY who wore cowboy boots and swore a lot, LOL, but lovely guy..I met him when my husband and I contracted several jobs from him) about the Hebrew Bible than I ever did from the Witlesses.

  I figured that was a good place to learn about the Hebrew bible and I found out they don't know crap about what those books really meant to the Jews.

  Of course, by then I'd found out that they don't know crap about a lot of things that they think they do.

  I have a good friend, Maggie, who was a Mennonite and converted to Judaism, reformed after she married. She's been a good friend for a long time and we often discuss religion and other things.

  It's interesting that her Mennonite background has some amazingly similar aspects to being raised as a Witness, particularly in the isolation from the rest of human society in many ways.
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  ziddina

  Doug,

  "It is possible that the Israelites always were hill dwellers of Canaan, and that their priests created stories to make out that God had given them the land they were now occupying. Hence stories such as Moses and Joshua...."

  Yup. Very likely... I would have to do a LOT more research - and right now I'm doing some VERY LIGHT research into Zarathustra, and the Goddess Innanna, so I don't have time, yet - to see exactly what the latest scientifically-based archaeological theories are about the origins of the Isra-EL-ites... And the theories change as new research adjusts the 'viewpoint'...

  Heck, I still need to do a LOT more research on the god "EL"...

  But yes, I agree that what you stated is a very likely explanation... Do you have sources for your statement?? [I'm always on the lookout for another book to read...]

  Zid
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  not a captive

  Adam was the last one standing so maybe that is why he gets all the credit for the fall. If he had not been afraid of standing on his own with God?

  That's the challenge each of us face on the way out of the borg.
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  Heaven

  And then there's the question a lot of people ask.... Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons? (tee hee hee)

  If they did have them, I can just see God doing the Pillsbury Doughboy moves on both of them as the finishing touch on his 'creations'. I can also here the giggle too.