Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality

Only logged in members can reply and interact with the post.
Join SimilarWorlds for FREE »

Something I don't understand about the bible

Genesis 2 16-17
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat[d] of it you shall surely die.”

God told Adam that the day he eats from that tree, he will surely die. But Adam did not die the day he ate the tree. He was just banned from Eden and was forced to live a harder life. He may have lost his immortality, but he didn't die for a long time later. So if God told Adam he would die the day he ate the apple, but than Adam didn't die. Wouldn't that mean God told Adam a lie?

Also, if God knows all and sees all, as people who believe the bible is God's complete word believe, didn't he know the serpent would successfully trick Eve and Adam into eating the apple? If he really didn't want them to eat from it, why didn't he simply block entry to it? Why did he allow a cunning creature that he knew would successfully tempt them into eating the tree, even after he told them not too.
Almost seems like it was God's plan all along to have them eat from the tree.

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

laurieluvsit · 26-30, F

Yes, he knew man/woman would fail but he also had a plan to rescue them from themselves and thus help them become better humans.

1-25 of 35

Sweetguy024 · 36-40, M

@laurieluvsit so he allowed the serpent to trick them in order to have them become better people?

laurieluvsit · 26-30, F

@Sweetguy024
That is perverted.
That's like everyone saying every murder is allowed by God. Many atheists have that philosophy in their religion.

Ohyeah3809 · 31-35

@Sweetguy024 I think it’s more about he gave them freedom of choice.

LordShadowfire · 100+, M

@laurieluvsit I don't see anything perverted in what @Sweetguy024 said. It sounds like just a rephrasing of what you yourself said.

@Ohyeah3809 And yet he knew exactly what would happen.

Ohyeah3809 · 31-35

@LordShadowfire well yeah he also probably knew what would happen if they didn’t doesn’t change freedom of choice for the other person even if you know something…

Sweetguy024 · 36-40, M

@LordShadowfire that's what I thought too haha

LordShadowfire · 100+, M

@Ohyeah3809 So, here's a hypothetical for you. I like to play The Sims 4. So let's say I create a character with the Hot-headed trait, as well as the Neat trait, and for a roommate, I give this character someone with the Lazy, Slob, and Glutton traits, knowing full well that the roommate is going to piss off the other character. Every time my Neat character loses his temper with my Slob character, I trap my Neat character in an underground chamber and set him on fire.

I knew it would happen. I knew the one character would lose his temper with the other. Yet I punish the Neat character for being Hot-headed, as I designed him. In other words, I give him free will, but I punish him for behaving as he's programmed to behave.

Does that make sense? Am I a good and loving God for doing that?

Sweetguy024 · 36-40, M

@Ohyeah3809 is it really freedom of choice when if you chose wrong you get punished greatly for it? Freedom of speech means you can say what you want without being punished by it

ninalanyon · 61-69, T

@laurieluvsit [quote]Many atheists have that philosophy in their religion.[/quote]
Where do you get that from?

Ohyeah3809 · 31-35

@Sweetguy024 freedom of choice is exactly that no matter how convoluted you want to try to make it. eat the fruit or don’t they were warned and did it anyways that’s all. don’t compare this to freedom of speech it’s way simpler than that

LordShadowfire · 100+, M

@Ohyeah3809 Oh, sure. Yeah. It's simple. We have freedom to do whatever we want, but if we exercise it, we go to hell for eternity.

Sweetguy024 · 36-40, M

@Ohyeah3809 I donno, if I hear you're free to do something Id say that means you can do it without repercussions. That's pretty simple lol. I don't have a freedom to drive drunk. I can do it if I want to, but not with out consequences.

Ohyeah3809 · 31-35

@LordShadowfire are you arguing against freedom of choice or consciences for your actions? To quote Jurassic park we were so obsessed over could we, we never asked should we!!!!

SpudMuffin · 61-69, M

@laurieluvsit atheists don't have a religion. That's what being an atheist means.
No atheist would say that murder is allowed by god, because we know god doesn't exist.

Ohyeah3809 · 31-35

@Sweetguy024 ahhh yes as I’ve been saying the whole time you have the freedom to choose, not the freedom to do. There is a difference.

Richard65 · M

@laurieluvsit athiests don't have a religion. That's just a desperate attempt by Creationists to bring everyone down to their level.

Sweetguy024 · 36-40, M

@Ohyeah3809 that's fair, but than they should call it an ability instead of freedom

Ohyeah3809 · 31-35

@Sweetguy024 call it whatever you want honestly… wait did we just stumble on why stuff is hard to translate lol Ie we read the same thing but didn’t comprehend it the same way lol

JimboSaturn · 51-55, M

@laurieluvsit Actually the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" really means you can't kill without god's permission. Immediately after receiving the ten commandments, god instructed Moses and joshua to kill about 3,000 people.

Ohyeah3809 · 31-35

@Sweetguy024 I really appreciated the way you handled your comments back to me thank you!!!

Sweetguy024 · 36-40, M

@Ohyeah3809 you're welcome! You were respectful to me so no reason not to be respectful back 🙂

LordShadowfire · 100+, M

@Ohyeah3809 [quote]are you arguing against freedom of choice or consciences for your actions?[/quote]
I'm arguing that if there's a God who created me, and he is surprised at the choices I've made, he's not a very good one.

JimboSaturn · 51-55, M

@laurieluvsit Why wouldn't he just create the scenario that they wouldn't fail?

ninalanyon · 61-69, T

@JimboSaturn Look at it from the god's point of view, where would the fun be in such a scenario.

Ohyeah3809 · 31-35

@LordShadowfire when did him being surprised come into to this or have anything to do with it? He is all knowing therefore isn’t surprised…

1-25 of 35