Eve: Failing the Single Test She Had

by simon17 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  simon17

  Its amazing how things seemed logical when you heard them. Consider the case of Eve. We always here how truly terrible a sin (most likely the unforgivable sin) because she was perfect and given ONE command. Just ONE. Don't eat the fruit of that one tree. That's it. All she had to do was not eat some fruit and we'd be chilling in paradise today. How easy.

  And of course she failed. She failed in the ONE thing that she couldn't do. This is what Witnesses will have you believe to show how truly awful Eve (and Adam) were, and why clearly God could not overlook it. One test, one failure. They were batting zero.

  Wait a minute? Just one thing they had to do? They could curse and have anal sex and be a bitchy wife or a wife beating husband? They could kill? They could rape? They could torture animals? They could do any of a million things that any moral and good person would not do today and a million more that any JW could not do today? No surely that wouldn't be right. Surely there must be plenty of things that they were not only doing, but doing well. They could very well have been quite good people, no?

  But their big sin, the big thing that cost them their LIFE and the lives of EVERY HUMAN SINCE is eat an apple? Are you serious? What a myth that they failed in their one opportunity. Every moment of life is continual opportunities to do the right thing or the wrong thing (and by wrong thing I mean a large set of things, probably more than just the solitary possible sin of apple eating).

  Consider a human parent who would perform similarly. Imagine putting a box in the attic and saying to your kid, on pain of death, this is the one thing I ask out of your life: don't open this box (and eventually make children). And they go through life, showering and being kind and cleaning behind their ears until one day they get talked into looking inside the box, find nothing interesting of note, and BOOM: nothing else they ever did means anything. Their inexperienced mistake of curiosity which hurt no one and was a terrible model of how good of a kid they were, causes the parents to flip out, inflict lifelong physical pain on them, and put a very real and horrible curse on them and all their offspring. I mean: could you possibly even think of a word to describe the parents this side of "evil"?

  This had not much of a point, but sifting through the logic of so many accounts is simply astounding when thinking for yourself.
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  DagothUr

  The story of Adam and Eve contains one hidden message: the common man should not poke his nose in divinity's business. The story itself was most probably invented by the priests, who were the only ones allowed to perform sacred rituals and stuff. They were the only ones allowed to communicate with the gods. The task of the common people was simple: obey the gods and the lords of the realm. Adam and Eve disobeyed and look what happened! Obey! Obey!
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  Heaven

  The Adam and Eve story is the key to religion, especially Christianity. Without it, there is no original sin and therefore no need for the religious industry and its churches. Follow the money. The side benefit, at least for some men, is the legitimizing of abuse of women.

  It was during my teen years that I began seeing the Bible as a man-made tool to control and abuse. If you didn't fit within it's defined box of 'righteouness' you were doomed and a heretic/apostate/abominiation and you were going to burn. The ignorance and ugliness evident in this book is quite sad and repulsive.

  As many have said before, it's a book written by Bronze Age, Middle Eastern men attempting to explain the unexplainable and legitimize the actions of certain 'chosen' ones.
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  blondie

  If Eve existed and was perfect, how could she believe that a snake could talk...if I had been her and a snake started talking to me I would have run for the hills to find Adam. Who did she think she was, Harry Potter?

  Blondie, An Imperfect Woman

  
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  OnTheWayOut

  17, you make a good point. Eve (and Adam) could not have just had one single obedience test and a free pass on anything else.

  If JW's were able to actually participate in argument/debate, I would make your point. "If WTS wants one single requirement of not eating from some tree or a modern equivalent such as 'Avoid meat on Fridays' then that would be fine. But they are loaded with requirements which include not thinking for yourself on many things. By your argument, Eve was free to go to R-rated movies and read apostate literature and participate in holidays. So I guess I am also."
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  journey-on

  You can look at this account in its (1) literal sense, its (2) teaching or moral sense, or a (3) spiritual value sense.

  In the literal sense, it seems absurd. Eve was tempted, she disobeyed, she enticed Adam to disobey, and a dynamic was set in motion that reverberated throughout mankind's history.

  In the teaching or moral sense, you get a more reasonable message from the "story": Things tempt us. Sometimes we want to rebel, step outside our parents'/church's instructions and do our own thing. We have to be prepared to suffer the consequences or rewards. For every choice, there is a repercussion of some kind.

  But, if you believe these "stories" have a deeper esoteric meaning on a spiritual value level, then you can perhaps see that this act (the female energy becoming active rather than receptive or passive) was exactly what was needed in order for Free Will to become manifest in the world. Until the scales are tipped, the pendulum cannot be set into motion.
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  Sulla

  You're forgetting (4) they never fracking listen! sense.

  That's the sense in which I take it. Makes it real.
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  GOrwell

  The idea that if Eve and/or Adam had 'passed' the test, we'd all be alive in paradise is a fantasy. It would have been inevitable that someone along the line would have exercised their free will and challenged God's authority. Even if the issue was raised at a later date, it would have been no less valid than had Eve, and God would have known this. In other words, it would seem God created us to fail.
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  mummatron

  Some really interesting points of view Simon17. I must admit I'd never thought of it in that way before. The Adam & Eve scenario really does bug me. Especially the part about all womankind being punished with painful childbirth. Why punish all women for the actions of one?

  Having just had 2 babies, the physiological and psychological factors of birth are something I've looked at in-depth. It's possible to have a near pain-free (drug-free) experience by adopting a more animalistic approach (look at how dogs, cats and other quadruped mammals birth their young) by keeping mobile, squating on all fours to allow the pelvis to open and for gravity to help. Hypnobirthing is something that is gaining in popularity as a drug-free method of pain-relief. What's interesting about that is that studies such as Dr Grantly Dick-Read's identify the physiological reactions that occur due to what he named the 'fear, tension, pain cycle'. By fearing birth, one increases the pain and duration. Thus telling women that they will experience painful labours as mentioned in Genesis ch3, instills a belief that birth is painful and something to fear which causes pain - thus fulfilling what the Bible writers chronicled!

  If you weren't already aware of it, I thoroughly recommend researching the Omphalos hypothesis - did Adam & Eve have navels? What about childhood memories - false implanted memories, or no prior memories?
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  still thinking

  So she failed the test, and was told that if she did it she would die.(which she didn't). In reality she was going to die anyway because they hadn't yet eaten of the tree of life. So what was the whole point of the test?