The "Tree of Life and its meaning" (page 3)

designs

'Original Sin' was Paul's invention as Jews do not belive in such a thing.

EdenOne

The Jewish belief or non belief in an original sin is irrelevant to its validation.

Plus, I have to disagree with you. The israelites participated in a system of worship that had animal sacrifices offered as atonement for sin. Wouldn't any Jew question why was the reason for that? Naturally they aknowledged that the reason for the need of such "atonement" was sin. The account in Genesis was the best explanation they had for the origin of such sin. if the individual Jew believed it or not, or if latter Jews discarded that notion as an allegory so that they could stop performing animal sacrifices, since the Temple wasn't available anymore, doesn't add anything to the validation of the account.

Eden

cofty

cofty, just as I don't expect to persuade you that Adam and Eve did exist, you can't persuade me of the inexistence of God

I didn't say anything about god's existence. Adam and Eve did not exist. This is a fact, not an opinion.

Millions of christians accept the reality of evolution and reconcile it to their faith.

Have a read, what are you afraid of?

My question about why Adam and Eve failed still stands. Illustrations about doors and lions don't help at all.

cantleave

Adam and Eve are an impossiblity, they can not be reconciled by any logic.

cantleave

Jesus is said to have mentioned Noah, does that make the worldwide flood a fact too?

designs

It always amusing to hear 'christains' tell Jews that they got it wrong.

Tiktaalik

>> cofty, just as I don't expect to persuade you that Adam and Eve did exist, you can't persuade me of the inexistence of God, for it is impossible to prove the inexistance of something unless you first define such something. By "defining" it, you are already constructing its existence, even if by intelectual conjecture alone. So it's circular reasoning.

That is pure semantics. Do you believe in the inexistance of fairies or dragons or unicorns? Just because some people hold an intelectual concept of something, that does mean that it then somehow exists outside their minds. By your reasoning anything that humans can imagine then literally exists. That is absurd.

If you want to believe that the Jewish creation myth is literally true, that's fine. But do not be so intellectually dishonest as to ignore the manifold strands of scientific endeavour that have produced hard tangible evidence that reveal it to nothing more than just one among many such mythical cultural constructs that seek to explain the human condition.

Monsieur

cofty wrote - "But there is always a reason why people make bad moral choices. Its always rooted somewhere in nature or nurture.

You have simply evaded the question"

I too believe (stress 'believe' as I don't have the absolute answer, but it MUST exist somehow) that for every action there is a reaction. And that every 'occurrence' must have a spark/push/motive even, to catapult it, so to speak, into action.

Is is a fact that people that believe in God (as I do) also believe that God has absolute control and power over all things. In this case, the reasoning is that God removed himself from interfering with Satan so as to allow free will.

My problem with this reasoning though is this-

1)the consequences of this 'reality' are incredibly horrendous, BUT not for all of man. It is an absolute injustice that some must suffer terrible fear and death while others simply die a peacefull death in sleep in old age.

2) it seems pretty clear that man as a whole mimics too awfully close the 'law of the beast', as in, it's a dog eat dog world, survival of the fittest, etc. Wether this is a reflection on evolution is another matter, but facts are facts, and man destroys man for its own advancement/surviva. Thus, is man simply another element of creation, born to die? as any animal or plant or living thing?

Is that what it amounts to?

Terry

Jesus spoke of Adam as a real character.

Jesus didn't say Adam was a real character. We have to infer that into what Jesus said.

I could say, "Popeye the sailor said 'I am what I am and that's all that I am'" but you would not infer I'm saying Popeye is a real character.

Simply referencing a popular figure of myth, story or imagination or tradition does not have to imply reality.

Pterist

There were two trees. One the "knowledge of good and evil" the other "eternal life". The tree of Eternal Life symbolized Christ and the eternal plan to conform to the image of God with the prospects of glory and immortality. Ephesians 1:5-14 Psalm 8:5-7, Hebrews 2:6-18

I set before you life and death, choose life, this was offered to Eve and Adam, Israel and now humanity. Genesis 2:9, Deuteronomy 30:15-18, john3:16, 1 John 5:9-13

Shalom

The "Tree of Life and its meaning"

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