Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis is mythical and immoral. The story shows that it's acceptable to punish people for the sins of others (original sin), death is a suitable punishment for disobedience and approves of incest.
Incest
The only biologically correct explanation known is that we evolved slowly from lower animals so that incest was never a problem.
I found this site and it explains it very logically to me and maybe it will help to see it from God's view!! http://www.inplainsite.org/html/find..._for_cain.html
The question of ‘Who Cain married’ is perhaps the most commonly asked question by skeptics of the Bible today and has been an issue for many years as the following quote from R.A. Torrey demonstrates.
“But if one will study his Bible carefully and note exactly what it says, there is really no great difficulty in the question." -R.A. Torrey, "Difficulties in The Bible” Pg. 36 [Moody Press: Chicago, IL], 1907.
Sadly, most Christians have not been able to give an adequate answer to this question, (most churches are sadly lacking in the teaching of apologetics). As a result, the world thinks Christians cannot defend the authority of Scripture and, thus, the Christian faith.
Inter-Family Marriage?
God’s laws at the time condemned sexual relations between children and their parents but said nothing about inter-marriage between brother and sister, which apparently did not bear any evil consequences. (Abraham married his half sister.) The more distantly related parents are, the more likely it is that they will have different genetic disorders. Children, inheriting one set of genes from each parent, are likely to end up with pairs of genes containing a maximum of one bad gene in each pair. The good gene tends to override the bad so that a deformity (a serious one, anyway) does not occur.
However, the more closely related two people are, the more likely it is that they will have similar genetic problems, since these have been inherited from the same parents. Therefore, a brother and a sister are more likely to have similar problems in their genes. A child of a union between such siblings could inherit the same bad gene on the same gene pair from both, resulting in two bad copies of the gene and serious defects.
In the time of Adam and Eve the genetic pool was pristine and close marriages didn’t pose the problem the do today. However by the time of Moses (a few thousand years later), degenerative mistakes would have built up in the human race to such an extent that it was necessary for God to forbid close relative marriages, which makes perfect biological sense. Also, there were plenty of people on the earth by then, and there was no reason for close relations to marry.
Go to this site and it gives a real insight on how God handles populating the world. I really couldn't explain it so I copied the interesting parts. I guess I just assume God does know all and that's why it's so important to sometimes let go of how you were taught Christianity and let the Holy Spirit guide you!!
PHM, I know you are being given a hard time about your thread. I for one would like to "THANK YOU"!! You have made me think about many things that I believe and why which, has improved my beliefs and made research fun. Sitting idle at what you believe is not good, let it be challenged, we should always appreciate a chance to share our love for Jesus when asked and defend when needed!!
I feel each time I am confronted with harsh or silly questions it gives me a chance to strengthen my belief. I know the day could come when my faith well be the reason I LIVE or DIE and I hope if asked if I would rather give up Jesus or Die I will choose to Die for my beliefs, so this is NOTHING compared to whats possibly ahead.
You may be right, Alpha. In my head, all these threads are morphing into one.
They do run together. I wind up saying the same thing in 6 different threads....crazy.
Anyway, here's a couple of my responses, for those they may not go back...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpha8207
Since I know you've been in several posts where I have discussed the way Christ changed the Old Law, I won't go into that here unless some specifically asks for it.
Also, according to your OP, this was before sin and so, before immorality, so maybe you did a better job of explaining this to yourself than anyone else could.
Lastly, sorry if I mixed you up with someone else. I was under the impression you were a staunch, non-believing, atheist who wanted nothing to do with any organized or disorganized religion.
If you are genuinely searching for answers, I stand corrected and apologize for my curtness.
Like I've said in preivious posts, I'm not in threads about Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy....because I don't believe in any of them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpha8207
I know it wasn't written chronologically. Wait, that's not an accurate statement. I know that the Bible (in particular the Old Testament and even more in particular Genesis) is not in chronological order. That's pretty common knowledge. I'm not sure, however, if there are any 'mainstream' folks who believe that Adam and Eve had children prior to the fall.
My point on the labor pains was that God told Eve that as a result of the fall, He would increase her pains in child birth. If she had never had child birth, what pains would there have been to increase.
Lastly, all of this took place before the advent of the Old Testament Law. The sin of incest and the curse brought on by that sin (genetic mutation) had yet to be handed down as sin/punishment.
Does that help in your search for Truth?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpha8207
PHM, couple of things.
1-ILNC was spot on with her response. So I'll let you run with that Moab/Ammon story. It is, in my opinion, their punishment and worth the investigation. Very interesting.
2-As for Lot,according to scripture, he was unaware of what was happening. Now whether the Law regarding alcohol (or incest for that matter) had been handed down yet or not, I'm still unclear on. If it were, that opens up a whole other can of worms. That being said, even if it were, Lot's punishment would be God's responsibility. I think it's important to note that most biblical characters were not treated as super-human. They were just like you and me. They had flaws and made mistakes. If the bible were orchestrated by men, wouldn't it make sense to leave out the sins of the faith's 'fore fathers'. But they are all in there. Moses, David, Noah, Samson, Peter, Judas, and, yes, Lot...even Abraham, Sarah...the list continues....and the point??
That God's mercy and forgiveness is needed by EVERYBODY. No one is without the need of a Savior...some just simply don't want Him.
Hope that helps.
I didn't edit those down and maybe I should...but time doesn't permit right now.
It is a story as much as 7,000 yrs. old meant to explain the ascent of man. There was not writing at the time. Much was passed down verbatim. It is difficult to understand how an omnipotent God that created a universe as vast a universe as we have learned it is, would have left us an imperfect explanation of our existence. You must leap forward to the time of Jesus Christ to understand the true meaning. Evolutionary concepts suggest man is 60 million years old. It doesn't matter if yo grandadddy was an ape or Adam. What matters is whether one has the correct concept ,which is -evolution or intelligent design. PHM, you struggle with the same Jewish concept that most of us struggle with. It is hard to understand that a God that created a universe as vast as the one we now understand would start with a story so simple and expect us to buy that explanation. Surely a God that omnipotent could get the story right? Perhaps he thought it was all we could handle at the time?
In my opinion, if you consider the concept of exponential growth as it relates to knowledge, even restricted to human knowledge, it is not much of a leap of faith to believe in intelligent design. Bottom line is that if you look at the teachings of Jesus Christ you can find not one thing wrong. Perhaps intelligent design would suggest the best prescription for survival of our species would be the golden rule? Not true of other religions. He was despised then and is despised today. To the athiest of the world I would say, "To know that you know what you know, and to know that you do not know what you do not know is true knowlege" Confucious.
adem and eve is a story in genesis about a man named adem and a lady named eve they lived in the garden and they were punished because eve was tempted to eat a fruit from the tree of knowlege. eve conviced adem to do the same.
You Go Spunky!!!! I totally agree with you. God is the creator of ALL things. You just can't argue about somethings. The Bible says when you find them ignorant,you leave them ignorant! And about the incest thing, the law wasn't even established yet, plus if cain and his brothers hadn't taken their sisters, how in the world did all the different ppl come about? I didn't evolve from any monkey!!!!
You Go Spunky!!!! I totally agree with you. God is the creator of ALL things. You just can't argue about somethings. The Bible says when you find them ignorant,you leave them ignorant! And about the incest thing, the law wasn't even established yet, plus if cain and his brothers hadn't taken their sisters, how in the world did all the different ppl come about? I didn't evolve from any monkey!!!!
The people of the world today are not descended from Adam and Eve, and you are right you didn't evolve from a monkey...You are an ape.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is a catholic perspective
