Ceeboo wrote:I know. That's why I am certain that I don't have enough faith to be an atheist.
This is one of those comments religious people say because they're too dumb to avoid saying incredibly stupid things. It's like saying, I don't have enough hair on my head to be bald.
damned Christ on a stick.
God belief is for people who don't want to live life on the universe's terms.
huckelberry wrote:You mean like do not eat fruit from that tree over there in the garden?
Or the simpler, don't lie, cheat,kill, and steal.
Right. God places a tree filled with desirable fruit right in front of two critters who have no concept of do or don’t, or of disobey. Then they are instructed not to ‘eat the fruit’. Not that it couldn’t happen that the whole Tree of Knowledge Hosting Tasty Fruit thing couldn’t have rather been The Cactus of Knowledge, or the Boulder of Knowledge, or anything else that would be much harder to eat.
It was tree of knowledge of good and evil not just knowledge. It seems that to pretend the humans had no understanding is an arbitrary change in the story made to disable it.
huckelberry wrote:It was tree of knowledge of good and evil not just knowledge. It seems that to pretend the humans had no understanding is an arbitrary change in the story made to disable it.
Perhaps, but maybe not. It seems to be a fair question regardless of my flippant treatment of the A&E story. The concept of disobeying - or comprehending consequences - seems strongly linked to concepts of good versus evil. And it’s interesting to me that temptation is part of the setup in this circumstance ... how do new human critters comprehend or process temptation along with consequence without knowledge of good and evil?
honorentheos wrote:Or, it's a legend about a people afflicted by poisonous snakes whose priests told them they needed to worship a golden snake to remove the curse of the snakes. Then later priests turned that story into one about the supposed one true God with whom they had a covenant. And now even later priests are telling people THAT story is really about Jesus.
Or it’s just a bored fallen angel who coaxed the smart human (the woman of course ) into biting the apple because he was bored, then the worried good angel gave the two humans his flaming sword which he wasn’t supposed to do and now he has to find it millennia later because the Celestial library WANTS IT BACK but only Agnes Nutter seems to have a clue where it is, in prophecy number ten thousand and.... oh, wait. That’s Good Omens. On bbc. Sorry.
I liked Good Omens as a book and enjoyed the BBC series. My daughter loves David Tennant from his run as the Doctor so we had fun watching it together.
That said, I think of all the books written by or with Terry Pratchett, Small Gods captures the reality of religion in a way nothing I've read elsewhere has been able to manage.
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth? ~ Eiji Yoshikawa
huckelberry wrote:It was tree of knowledge of good and evil not just knowledge. It seems that to pretend the humans had no understanding is an arbitrary change in the story made to disable it.
Perhaps, but maybe not. It seems to be a fair question regardless of my flippant treatment of the A&E story. The concept of disobeying - or comprehending consequences - seems strongly linked to concepts of good versus evil. And it’s interesting to me that temptation is part of the setup in this circumstance ... how do new human critters comprehend or process temptation along with consequence without knowledge of good and evil?
Canpakes, I can sympathize with the idea that the events were in one way or the other inevitable but I do not know for sure. I think there is a possibility of learning consequences and good without pitching into the land of lies which are fundamental to evil.
I do not expect any extensive explanation in the story. It is a very short poetic preamble to the human story. It does propose God acts to gove us some protection from the tragic event of evil and proposes a way to overcome in the future. That way is not explain in the short poetic preamble, just suggested that it exists.
honorentheos wrote:Does it affect reality if one does or doesn't?
I'm not sure what you are implying?
It was a serious question. Even if someone doesn't believe in the Bible (or any "religion") they could still believe that a spiritual realm exists, no?
honorentheos wrote:Does it affect reality if one does or doesn't?
I'm not sure what you are implying?
It was a serious question. Even if someone doesn't believe in the Bible (or any "religion") they could still believe that a spiritual realm exists, no?
honorentheos wrote:Does it affect reality if one does or doesn't?
I'm not sure what you are implying?
It was a serious question. Even if someone doesn't believe in the Bible (or any "religion") they could still believe that a spiritual realm exists, no?
Hey Ceebs, I'm not trying to imply something. Just straight forwardly asking if it affects reality if a person does or doesn't believe in a spirit realm.
To help clarify, what does it matter in real terms? How would you fill in the blank: A person who believes in a spirit realm of any kind is different from a person who doesn't by___________.
The world is always full of the sound of waves..but who knows the heart of the sea, a hundred feet down? Who knows it's depth? ~ Eiji Yoshikawa
) into biting the apple because he was bored, then the worried good angel gave the two humans his flaming sword which he wasn’t supposed to do and now he has to find it millennia later because the Celestial library WANTS IT BACK but only Agnes Nutter seems to have a clue where it is, in prophecy number ten thousand and.... oh, wait. That’s Good Omens. On bbc. Sorry.