You know, Bohm, my posts to you aren't that long, lol... they might seem it, but that's because I'm also quoting you :)
Sorry about the snake/serpent thing, i don mean anything particular about it.
No problem. Perhaps I am reading something into it that isn't there. (assumption)
I repeat that we are both assuming things into what we have of this story. Even in all that you just wrote to me, one thing jumped out at once:
I would think the snake was the real source of problems, given that it wanted worship.
There is nothing in that story that even implies that Satan wanted worship for himself. (so I won't answer your questions about worship) I think you are assuming based on what others have told you about the account, and/or the nature of Satan.
I also make assumptions, and I will tell you by what reason I can make those assumptions: Christ.
Christ is the image of God - even the book that contains the Adam/Eve story says this, even that book says to look to HIM over the scriptures leading us TO him. So everything I read, I base my thoughts about it on the image and truth that Christ gave us. This is how I can say that even though I don't understand the reason for something that happened - even if I might have done it differently with my own children (even though that is not a fair example, since I don't know everything at work) - God did what was just and right, and not without mercy.
Yes, I would have locked 'the gun' away, keeping it from my kids - even though I can't lock every gun in existence away from them. But there comes a time in life when even we have to allow our children (often once grown/or teenagers) to make their own mistakes, and suffer the consequences of their own mistakes. But while death is a permanent state from our pov, as in we can do nothing to change it... it is not a permanent state to God. I don't think that can be ignored.
Why did i create the tree of knowledge in such a way that it imediately affected the subject, and not just kick into effect like 20 hours later? Thats a rather strange design descision, and i dont understand it.
We are not looking at the tree of knowledge of good/bad in the same way. I know you understand cause/effect. Think of eating from the tree like reading a book, or seeing a movie (but all at once/like a download). Once you know it, you cannot un-know it. They ate (read, saw, downloaded) = they knew. Just like that.
Therefore i would have known when satan wanted to challenge me and i would have had that conversation with him
Unless Satan gave no sign of it before this act, and had never disobeyed before this.
it seem far more natural to assume God just changed his mind or altered the tree or that eve believed she has misheard God.
It doesn't seem more natural to me at all... perhaps it does to you, but I don't know why this assumption seems more natural to you than any other? So I make assumptions to get God 'off the hook' and you make assumptions to put God 'on the hook'.
But again, I know where my assumptions come from (Christ). Where do yours come from?
I would explain to eve why it is bad to eat from the tree
You will die?
I will repeat, that I do not think memory-wiping is a viable solution to anything - most especially NOT against our will.
if you walk through the points, can you honestly tell me those choices would not be more natural than what supposedly happened
So yes, I can honestly tell you that those choices do not seem more natural to me than what supposedly happened. Most especially, memory wiping seems very UNNATURAL to me.
(Also - and this would be an entirely different topic - God did not kill Jesus. He sent him here, yes, and he KNEW what would happen - that he would be rejected and handed over to be killed - but Jesus could have refused to die for anyone. He had authority to lay down his life, and authority to take it up. He did say that if he called on them, an army of angels would swoop down for Him.)
Tammy