If God thought humans were such a bad idea, when they ate from the tree of knowledge why didn't he destroy the human race instead of punishing us even though it was adam and eve who did wrong. I really do not believe in God but if he does exist out there he has a lotta questions to awnser!
The part I don't get is ... If God made humans and told them not to sin ... And humans sinned ... And sin is inherited ... Why is God making us all suffer in this world for millennia of wrongdoings that we never committed?
I agree... Hey, this sounds stupid, but did anyone else ever wonder if the whole "Adam And Eve" story were the truth where the hell did all these different races come from? The suggestion of the Adam and Eve story implies these were the first two people on earth, and they started the reproduction of life......does anybody understand what I'm leading to? It doesn't make sense. Especially seeing as how the religions that believe in the Adam and Eve story don't believe in evolution... I could understand it moreso if they believed in a bit of evolution to the point where certain humans evolved to fit their environment i.e. Africans developing dark skin to protect them from the sun, etc... The whole idea of the Adam and Eve story, to me, was told without much thought of any kind put into it. Indeed, it's fiction to me. Not reality. I also think the whole natural sin idea is a crock, and I think the idea that "evil people" exist is a crock as well. It's an exuse for people's mistakes and/or insanity. Obviously anyone who murders people ...isn't sane. So, does that make them evil? I don't think so.... Maybe, I'm just weird. *clears throat*
Actually, I do believe that, while Adam and Eve were the first two humans created, other humans were also created who were independent of Adam and Eve, and continued to live in the Garden of Eden. I'm pretty positive of that part of the story; that's how it was explained to me, at least.
In our confirmation class we were told that the story about Adam and Eve was just a myth told by the "wise" hebrew people to the rest of the hebrew people so as to make them understand how they were there on Earth and to point out that God was the one who created humans and every other thing on this universe, but that it shouldn't be taken literally...
DarkSecret Yes Gods dark secret is this.... We have no idea what god is. Not religion or any human. So why are we talking of fiction as though it were fact? Well. it MAY BE FACT. However...Human science says we did not come from 2 people.. Not genomically possible It's up to you to decide what conclusion is most likely. That of self serving individuals who wanted an impressive story. Or the impartial genetic research that contradicts it. Occam And the next deeper level... The believers might say genomes could have 'changed' to alow the current diversity. But...thats evolution.... Caught between the rock and the hard place.
I haven't studied much on different christian religions, but I grew up in a Catholic family. You're probably more right than I am, I just never chose to listen carefully in religion classes... Hikaru are you atheist, or...something else? just wondering because your post threw me off a bit. To tell you all the truth, I could care less how humans were created... That brings up a question I have... I know what I believe in, I'm not confused one bit... but, I'm not exactly sure if you'd consider me atheist or agnostic, I'm not sure which category I fit more properly...So maybe you can answer that for me [I don't really care, I'd just rather not say I'm atheist if I'm agnostic or the other way around...] Okay, so I don't believe in god or any higher power, but because I'm only human I don't know this for SURE[meaning, I don't say what I believe in is facts,it's just simply what I think and believe]...also, I could care less how humans and earth were created, because I don't think anyone really could possibly know... Is this more agnostic? From what I've read it seems that way... I never really looked into it, because I don't like to follow any type of group or religion, it's just something I always naturally believed... For the record, I'm not confused on my beliefs... I'm just not sure what society would "consider" me... if that makes any sense.
Apples+Oranges, for what you've said I think your position is closer to the agnostic than to the atheist one. Atheism firmly states that God does not exist, it doesn't leave any space for doubt... or at least that is what an atheist friend of mine explained to me. If you want, tomorrow I can look at mi University's library for some book which explains both positions better... Hope it helps...
i hate the way that however many holes you can pick in the bible, christians will come up with any amount of bullshit answers that never explain anything
Yeah, I became a confirmed Christian before I eventually left my church. I studied it, and came to the conclusion, that it's a bunch of baloney. =P Officially, I consider myself this: An agnostic Gaean-panentheist pseudo-Buddhist. In other words ... I don't know if a deity exists, and don't think that it's possible to prove or disprove it. If one does exist, I imagine it would be a deity that exists throughout the universe, and we exist physically as part of that deity, but spiritually as separate from that deity (i.e. panentheism), and that this deity would be a figure reminiscient of the pagan goddess of the Earth, Gaea. And, to top it all off, I'm not Buddhist in religion, or technically Buddhist in philosophy, but I agree with many Buddhist philosophical ideas. Edit: I also believe in the Buddhist doctrine of "anatta," or "No-Soul." I don't believe in souls, and I don't expect to live on as myself after I die, so I'm living life up to the max as often as I can. I only disbelieve in a soul because I see no evidence other than coincidence to even suggest that a soul exists. I don't buy into the account of a "soul." 2nd Edit: Actually, I think that makes me pantheist, not panentheist. Hmm. Guess I have to change my label again, rofl. *phew* I'm just a truth-seeker, as we all are. So if I can correct someone, I do. =) That's why I made that post. I think that the complete, unadulterated, immutable truth is the best thing for us. An atheist firmly (or relatively firmly) believes that there is no higher deity whatsoever. An agnostic believes that, there may be a "God," or there may not be a "God," and believes that if one does exist, it probably isn't something like the Christo-Judean god, Yahweh (yes, "Yahweh" is God's official name, lol). Many agnostics (but not all) also believe that there is no way to prove the existance or nonexistance of such a being; at least not with human technology and limitations of the current human mind. So, from what you said, I can't tell you if you are atheist or agnostic or what. But, you're PROBABLY agnostic. I thought I was atheist too until someone told me what an agnostic was. =P
Okay Hikaru, well that's where I pretty much fall in the middle of the two [agnostic and atheist] because, I don't believe in a god what so ever, but at the same time... Like someone said above ...atheists feel SURE that there is no god...I can't explain it, but for my personal beliefs, I believe there is absolutely no god, but I always seem to say "if there is..." I don't know how to put it into words. I'm odd.
Tracing Ancestry with MtDNA By Rick Groleau this from Nova Online In 1987, three scientists announced in the journal Nature that they had found a common ancestor to us all, a woman who lived in Africa 200,000 years ago. She was given the name "Eve," which was great for capturing attention, though somewhat misleading, as the name at once brought to mind the biblical Eve, and with it the mistaken notion that the ancestor was the first of our species -- the woman from whom all humankind descended. The "Eve" in question was actually the most recent common ancestor through matrilineal descent of all humans living today. That is, all people alive today can trace some of their genetic heritage through their mothers back to this one woman. The scientists hypothesized this ancient woman's existence by looking within the cells of living people and analyzing short loops of genetic code known as mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA for short. In recent years, scientists have used mtDNA to trace the evolution and migration of human species, including when the common ancestor to modern humans and Neanderthals lived -- though there has been considerable debate over the validity and value of the findings.
Then you are indeed atheist. You'll hear theists occasionally say "well, if there isn't a God ..." And they're still theists. So you can still be atheist, and think "what if." You just don't believe it, which is why you think "if" in "what if." Anyway, glad I can help. =)
Thanks, 'tis what I thought, I just wanted to make sure. The agnostic idea is something very new to me; To tell you the truth, I didn't even know what it was up until a couple months ago... so it confused me a bit. Anyway, thanks!
thanks. Actually, I don't have a problem with the idea that doG exists. It's just that people keep coming up to me and trying to tell me which breed is the "true doG" and taht all other doGs are false doGs. that's where it gets confusing.
NaykidApe Not confusing at all if you realise that NONE of them have any idea what 'god' is. [if there is one ] Occam
so maybe this dna stuff is what they mean by our "soul" living on.... or it could be that (of ourselves) which survives in those that continue on after we die. myths are made for some reason or other. a few of them are even instructive and beneficial to the individual and society.