In another thread, BTS quoted this Catholic doctrinal paraphrasing of Adam and Eve:
http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt1art1p7.shtml#390
God created man in his image and established him in his friendship.
^ I don't believe you can be a subject of another entity while at the same time being in "friendship." To me, friendship is an equality whereas Adam's relationship with God was not equal so I would not call them "in friendship".
A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God.
^ Free submission? That is a very loaded term. So God creates me with free will since I can "freely" choose to be in submission to him or choose independence. Then he withholds friendship, and all benefits that come with that, for not choosing to live in submission.
The prohibition against eating "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" spells this out: "for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die." The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.
^ Why must we "recognize" that we are dependent on God? We either are free to do as we wish or we are not. This reminds me of a father telling his son to respect him because of the position and not his actions. I would never expect my son to respect me if my actions didn't merrit respect. But that is what you say God expects. According to your "perfect scanario" we would have just accpeted the fact that we have limits. That we will only progress as a species when God allows for it, which of course defeats the purpose of progress when it intravenously injected into us by our Creator.
Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of.278 All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.
^ Trust is not the issue here, that's a strawman. The issue is whether or not we really have free will or not. The Devil didn't tempt Adam and Eve, the Devil brought up the real issue. He knew we would struggle living in "God's Terrarium": The Garden of Eden and eventually Earth. He knew God put it in us to want freedom and autonomy. The Bible's Devil is not mindless evil, he is a theme througout the Bible as "the other side of the coin."
You, and many other people in Organized Religion, have bought into the Bible's message: that we cannot direct our own step. Your reasoning for this is that we make mistakes, that we are flawed therefore all plans we make will ultimately fail. The "Devil's" message is the exact opposite: we can direct our own step. When it comes to "who ended up being correct" history would lean towards the Devil's position... because we are still here and progressing as a species.
But here comes the Religionists. Telling us that we are all "sinners" worthy of death. It's a f*cking scam.
In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully "divinized" by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to "be like God," but "without God, before God, and not in accordance with God."
^ Oh poor God, he got rejected by his own creations! The nerve of those humans to exercise the free will imparted upon them when created. And God got pretty mad according to the Genesis account:
- He expelled humans from his "holiness" which included having a lifespan that ended in torrment (old age) and of course, death
- He cursed the Earth
- He cursed all serpents
- He specifically targetted females with a curse to make childbearing much more painful
- He targetted females again while allowing males to dominate them
- He required specifically the death of animals to be sacrificed to him to satiate his special needs
All for what? Because man preferred himself? Of course we prefer ourselves. The better we are as individuals the better we are as a collective.
Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness. They become afraid of the God of whom they have conceived a distorted image—that of a God jealous of his prerogatives.
So now it's our fault, we are being "disobedient" now I see. I find it interesting how God created the human "parent/child" relationship. We have a child and that child is dependent on us for a time. But eventually our child becomes an adult... and equal. We put people behind bars for raising a child to be a subject, or slave. We have created a code of conduct and call them Human Rights, because many people on this planet wish to enchroach upon those rights for self interest.
But that's not how God works, according to the Genesis account. We are designed to be perpetual children, which is the polar opposite of how EVERYTHING works in the fleshly universe.
Can you stand there and tell me that God created everything to have a child phase except the relationship he has with his greatest creations? What a mind f*ck! Here we are surrounded by things growing into eventual autonomous entities including our own children.
But we don't get the satisfaction of knowing that WE found a way to keep ourselves alive with food and shelter. That WE developed technology to better ourselves, that WE created systems of Law and Government to try to keep peace?
Do we deserve no credit? Does God deserve all the credit?
No he does not. He deserves a LOT of credit for designing us, but HE WANTS US TO HAVE THE CREDIT for what WE create! That's what He enjoys, just as you or I love seeing our children succeed and create something from nothing.
Original Sin is a scam, a means to control. Humans are doing the best they can with the tools allotted and Original Sin discredits all accomplishment in the past 6000 years because we are all being "disobedient" and "only concerned with ourselves."
Well, who else is going to make an attempt to save this planet? Should we all be like Witnesses and lie down into the fetal position and wait for Papa God to come save us all?
-Sab