I love this out of the atheists book of bible stories, my daughter was in stitches laughing at it.
Cain and Abel THE SACRIFICES
For some reason, these two boys got it into their heads that God liked gifts. There is no record of sacrifices prior to this point. The concept of sacrifice appears to be a later development that is transposed back on this ancient setting by a later writer. Where did Cain and Abel get this idea, and how did they know what to offer?
Particularly, how could they possibly have known that God preferred dead animals over vegetables? Actually, this whole preference seems to be backwards. You would think that God would not want his precious, freshly created animals to be slaughtered and hacked up. If anything, the produce of their farm would be humanity’s most valuable possession, and would therefore be the most valued sacrifice.
Let’s modernize this a bit. Imagine that you have two children. One of them picks a flower and presents it to his mother as a gift. The other one slits the dog’s throat and throws him on the barbie. Which is the good one?
I think God should rethink this part of the story, and make Abel the bad guy.