October 5th, 2009
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
In Genesis 2, God clearly states that Adam and Eve will surely die after they eat the fruit, but they actually continue to live after doing so. Satan, in serpent form, informs them that they will know the difference between good and evil, which they do. It’s not as if they were immortal before and then had their immortality taken away. In Genesis 3, God kicks out Adam and Eve from the garden so that they cannot eat from the tree of life and live forever.
Some have suggested that they experienced a spiritual death. If that is true, then why doesn’t God say so? Instead of doing that, he rattles off various punishments that they will endure. The snake eats dust while women hate him, Eve gets painful childbirth and submission to men, and Adam must work the cursed land to get his food. God doesn’t say anything about any death, spiritual or otherwise. Theists may deny this and make rationalizations all they want, but the textual evidence shows that God lied and Satan told the truth.
The story itself is unfair. Adam and Eve didn’t understand the difference good and evil before eating the fruit. They didn’t know that it was bad to go against God before they did this, so he is essentially punishing them for something that they didn’t have the capacity to fully comprehend. God shouldn’t have placed the tree there to begin with, because they would have had free will without it.
If no one was supposed to eat from it, why not root it up? Why leave it there to tempt the first two humans? In addition, why does God want to prevent Adam and Eve from gaining knowledge? Faith, belief without evidence, is what he places the most value on. If he exists and is omniscient, then he placed the tree there because he knew that the first two humans would eat from it. He wanted them to blindly follow him rather than to learn anything. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree out of ignorance, he cursed them and their descendants for all eternity. That is evil and deceitful, and his punishments are extreme and cruel. This is not a good god. In the beginning, the only logical conclusion to come to is that God and Satan are both imaginary.
May 2nd, 2010 at 10:52 am
Before Satan’s lie to Adam, and Eve , Adam, and Eve were alreaddy immortal like God. After the fall.Humans are born,and then Die. Before the lie nothing died. Adam, and Eve had to leave the garden so evil would not go on forever. Evil was to never touch the tree of life. That is why Satan was only allowed to be at the one tree. After Adam ,and Eve fell it was like a moving tree of evil walking in the garden, and that was not a good thing to have in the garden of Eden. Death is death. To die is to die. Satan is spiritually dead, and full of death simultaneously. That is all Satan has to offer anyone. Before the fall there was no death of anything. Therefore no one died. God said in the day you eat thereof thou shalt surely die. Before the devils lie there was life, and life more abundant. After Satan’s encounter with Adam, and eve there has only been death.; Satan is the liar! and all life dies. Satan used the ignorance of Adam, and eve luring them to accept death that never existed before. God wanted free choise, and for Adam, and Eve to believe God their father out of faith. trusting him. Had they trusted God the death, and war that the world has known would never be. Satan is to blame for death,and God is the giver of life eternal. Humanity, and the angels can see the destruction that has ensued by reason of evil, and evil will be destroyed with no one ever wanting it ever again. God is all knowledge of good ,and that is the only thing whoever should know. Faith in God, and in heaven gives peace of mind, and hope, this hope calms the spirit helping humans to get along with each other. God sees the glorious end as well. Humans will have a song of redemption that no one in heaven will be able to sing because of the horrific hardship, and death that Satan brought. Redeemed will finally be free of death, and suffering creating a joy in them no heavenly being has ever known. God sees all of this occurring before humans are even aware of it occurring.The curse that Satan has brought will come to an end in the lake of fire prepared for the devil, and his angels. Hell is death where the soul dies. Satan brought this upon himself when he chose to oppose life that was given to him in the beginning. Death that Satan gave will be swallowed up in victory, and the redeemed will say grave where is thy victory death where is thy sting? God is good for he gives life. For the simple reason that life itself exists is evidence that God who is the giver of life exists as well. Therefore God gives life everlasting not punishment. Satan gives death everlasting which is punishment. Humanity at this time is blinded by the evil of Satan thinking it is truth. Humanity therefore only believes evil. This evil ends up pitting humans against human. Satan wants this to destroy as many souls as he can. In heaven no one will hurt or destroy in all of his holy mountain. Humans on this planet under Satan’s rule are doing just the opposite. When humans acquire the spirit of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, humans will turn their backs to Satan, and be good to their neighbor, not doing what Satan wants, preparing for heaven.
May 2nd, 2010 at 8:40 pm
@kobidobidog
I was going to write out a long response to your statement, refuting every last point you made. I could still do that, but I don’t think it would be as effective as some questions.
Would you encourage your kids to never learn right from wrong?
Would you kill your kids for learning right from wrong?
Would you kill your kids for doing wrong when they didn’t know it was wrong until after they did it?
Would you kill your grandchildren for something your kids did?
Why does your god value ignorance so much?
Why is knowledge of good an evil a bad thing?
If Adam and Eve couldn’t be in the garden because they knew good and evil, why were god and the devil allowed in the garden?
How is it that god supports life and the devil death, when (in the bible) god kills 2,270,365 people and the devil only 10?
How did the devil lie when the he said they would know good from evil (which they did) and that they wouldn’t die (which they didn’t until several hundred years later)?
How did god NOT lie when he said “you will die that day” and they lived several hundred years after eating the fruit?
Why didn’t god specify what a “spiritual death” was?
Why does simply knowing good from evil cause one to die spiritually?
If everything was immortal prior to sin entering the world, why even have a tree of life?
If everything was immortal prior to sin entering the world, what did the animals do that was so bad that they also deserve death?
June 22nd, 2010 at 9:32 am
Jahweh, the “good” god, plans to kill most of the human race, that is, EVERYONE who doesn’t believe that Jesus Christ is the only way, the only truth and the only life. Jahweh, at one point or another in scripture has all the sublime characteristics, thoughts, and actions of a mad dog! He plans to slaughter human beings to magnify and glorify himself. AND, don’t forget, Jesus Christ proudly announces that he and “his father” are ONE which, I am sure can be interpreted to mean “of one thought, one mind, one set of values, one motive.” The plan of these two “entities” was–RIGHT FROM BEFORE THE BEGINNING–to slaughter most of mankind. At the moment about two-thirds of the over 6.5 BILLION people on earth are non Christians. Have you ever wondered how big a pile over 4.5 billion human corpses would make? Well, both Yahweh and Jesus Christ do because they not only plan to make it but were able to foresee it from the beginning of time! Knowing the end from the beginning as they did and do, they knew that their plan would succeed. Being ALL POWERFUL, they could have changed this plan and made EVERYTHING as good as presumably it will be in Heaven (unless they have lied about this, too) but they didn’t change this plan! This makes these sublime beings no better than MONSTERS! I would suggest that all Christians start praying for themselves and go back and figure out at what point in their lives they STOPPED understanding the implications of what they were reading!