Has God Just Set Us Up For Failure?

by confused_101 38 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • confused_101
    confused_101

    The fact that in the very beginning God created man and then woman and placed them in the garden of Eden, then he told them that they could partake of all the fruits from the trees but that they shouldn’t touch his tree. The tree of knowledge…that is like putting cookies in front of a kid and telling them that they can’t eat them. Then he allowed Satan to speak to Eve (through the serpent) and convince her to eat and then she would know all that was good and bad. (I hope that I am getting it close to the stories that I was told, it’s been many years). Why didn’t Adam speak up and tell the serpent to #uck off? or why didn’t he tell Eve to do the same? So from there everything went down hill.

    Then after the big A, the devil will be bound and tossed into the abyss for 1,000 years. Then after all the faithful and those that are resurrected have worked their @sses off to turn the earth into a paradise the devil is let loose, just to temp everyone again. So that way all the bad ones are gotten rid of once and for all. Does it really take all that?

    Why wasn’t the devil just destroyed in the beginning, why was he sent to the mid-heavens to reek havoc on the planet? Is God just trying and wanting to tempt us with the things that we aren't supposed to touch and yet it's right there in front of us. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Someone enlighten me if possible and if I have left out any important facts, let me know. I'm happy that I have seperated myself from the dubs because if that is really how God works, that is just a dirty trick.

  • kittyeatzjdubs
    kittyeatzjdubs
    Why wasn’t the devil just destroyed in the beginning, why was he sent to the mid-heavens to reek havoc on the planet? Is God just trying and wanting to tempt us with the things that we aren't supposed to touch and yet it's right there in front of us. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

    i asked my mom that question once. she said that if god had just destroyed satan, then it would have proved satan right...

    i don't get it either...that's just dubs for ya...

    luv jojo

  • Finally-Free
    Finally-Free

    Even if it all made sense, I still can't see how he could justify allowing all the world's problems continue just because Adam and Eve ate some stupid fruit. Whatever happened to the punishment fitting the crime?

    W

  • confused_101
    confused_101

    Prove that he was right about what? I guess that I really should do some research...blah...

  • AlmostAtheist
    AlmostAtheist
    I guess that I really should do some research...blah...

    Confused,

    You'll save yourself some time and trouble to focus your research on the authenticity of the Bible itself. If you determine that it's just an old book that's not inspired by God, you won't need to bother trying to work out all the why's and so forth.

    And if you instead determine that the Bible IS inspired, you'll be all the more ready to look for and appreciate the answers.

    You win either way.

    Good luck!

    Dave

  • prophecor
    prophecor

    C101, I wish you'd have not brought this up. I always try to give God the benefit of the doubt when it comes to God and religion and all that comes with it. I am becoming more and more disappointed as the days increase.

    I feel very distant and alienated from God at this time. I know I don't understand and am looking thru eyes that have been infected with a religious leaning, filled with a lot of human failing. God, I'm disappointed in, but I still feel I have such a limited understanding that I'll always have a certain mistrust of organised religion.

  • Narkissos
    Narkissos

    Once we remove the WT commentary, the NT commentary, the late Jewish commentary, and read Genesis 2--3 as it stands, what are we left with? A simple tale about reality as it could be perceived 2,500 years ago and, to a large extent, still is. I.e, we both know and die. Homo sapiens et mortalis. In mythological speech, we have stolen knowledge from the gods but they prevented us from reaching immortality. No "sin," no "fall," no "devil," no promise of "redemption" either in the story. It's not a failure, it is half a success.

  • Mysterious
    Mysterious

    The entire concept of sin is unfair. We are born sinners. Why? It is not because of anything we did. So in effect it is punishing us for what someone else did. JWs assert that this is somehow fair. However, ask a JW if someone in the congregation commits adultery and you punish their children is that fair? No.

    Then they have the whole Adam and Eve are like a pie tin, the pie tin was dented by their sin, therefore they cannot produce undented pies (offspring). Hello? Get a new pie tin. If you are an almighty god it should have been nothing to go oops this tin is ruined let's whip out a new one instead.

    It certainly seems like god has a complex of some sort. Perhaps he does not feel that he is worthy of worship and therefore is trying to push you into the devil's hands. This may be why he did not destroy the devil outright, he is reluctant to admit his own creation is smarter and more logical than he is.

    Or perhaps god has another kind of complex in that he believes everyone is out to get him. In this all he has done is proven himself right by testing man "beyond what he can bear" time and time again. And the more people fall under his relentless testing, the more he feels justified to test them even further. On the contrary satan embraces everyone with open arms while god is in effect saying I don't trust you enough to worship me.

  • JamesThomas
    JamesThomas

    Confused_101:

    The fact that in the very beginning God created man and then woman and placed them in the garden of Eden...It just doesn’t make sense to me...Someone enlighten me if possible and if I have left out any important facts, let me know.

    The major catalyst for confusion may not be the facts you left out, but rather the "facts" you've left in. Your major mistake may be that you are unquestionably assuming that the anthropomorphic tribal god depicted within the old testament is valid, and that from here everything else springs true.

    There may be infinite universes, and even the one we are in seems infinite in it's expression of beauty, life and wonder. Is it wise to attribute such endlessly indescribable wonder to some limited, ancient, patriarchal, anthropoid deity? If our base assumption is wrong, it makes sense that confusion be the result. So, confusion, in this case, may be a healthy sign. Good for you. Keep questioning.

    alt

    j

  • LittleToe
    LittleToe

    Dave:

    You'll save yourself some time and trouble to focus your research on the authenticity of the Bible itself. If you determine that it's just an old book that's not inspired by God, you won't need to bother trying to work out all the why's and so forth.

    Please don't misunderstand me when I say that that approach is bereft of so much wonder...

    Prophecor:Dark night of the soul?

    I feel ya, bro!

    Confused:

    In answer to your thread title:

    ...if that's your paradigm, sure, why not. That being the case, it seems to me that you've perfectly described "hell"

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