Here is something my friend sent to me:
Adam and Eve story is just a story—of course
with many flaws
1. God, the source
of all wisdom, will not act in dishonor of Himself. If God does not want them
to eat from that particular tree, simple option is that such a tree should not
be created in the first place! (It is like digging a big pit in the middle of
an Express-Highway and asking the road-users to avoid falling into it.) Account
does not glorify God in any way, because what God said (“in the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”) did not take place. Bible says Adam
lived for 930 years. (Genesis 5:3) And following the disobedience, in the
affirmation of the punishment too God stresses harsher living, rather than the
originally-decreed death. (Genesis 3:8-19) Story dishonors God in that He
punished MORE severely the children of the violator, rather than the violator.
For example, increasing of labour-pain given to Eve as punishment spread to all
of her innocent children throughout the history. Some of them had to
die in labour-room prematurely due to more pain than Eve experienced,
thus delivering children with no mother to care for!
2. “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil” planted by God
did not live up to its name. Because account says “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.” Sense of
good or bad would have arisen in Eve only after eating the fruit of that tree,
but here she got that sense even before eating it. Hence the question arises:
Was it a literal tree?
3. If Satan is so smart as to scheme against God and his
children, he would definitely choose some smart method, not a sub-standard
temptation as in this case. It is too obvious that Adam and Eve who had already
experienced God as their unlimited benefactor would never believe God as
withholding something good from them, nor He is a liar, especially when such a
malicious suggestion originated from a stranger—with a strange phenomenon—a
snake with speaking ability! Also Satan contradicted only the effects of their disobedience, which of course further weakens his position,
because prima facie, it is the Law-giver that knows the effects of disobedience, not
the spectators who have never seen a violation before.
4. A) It is
unlikely that Adam and Eve would respond to such a lie the way they did. If
they wanted to know whether they would die without eating from the tree, it is
common sense that they should wait for sufficient time. For need of eating from that tree arises only when they are going
to die. Hence no one would choose to eat from that tree before such a need
arises. Waiting was safer option. While waiting, either of the two situations
will arise—they will continue to live on and on (in this case, they don’t have
to eat from that tree), or they will gradually sense that their body is moving
towards death (in this case, they can try that particular tree to avert death).
On the contrary, if they go ahead and eat from the tree, and thereafter find
that they are going to die, what will they do? They have no other option left
to try!
B) Adam and Eve who were perfect in their intelligence and
reason will not act so rashly with such a life-and-death matter. They will
definitely weigh the matter and see all the pros and cons of it. If they really
believed what Satan said, they still had another safer option. In their natural
wisdom, they would decide that one of them will try first, and after seeing the
result, would decide the course of action for the other. Suppose Eve ate first,
and then was going to succumb to death, Adam can avoid further testing, and
approach God and say what had really happened and request God to take action
against Satan, the liar, and deal with Eve mercifully as this was a matter of
curiosity and first instance. [Suppose! Your loving Father says there is a lion
in a nearby cave, and you and your wife should avoid going into
its vicinity Later a stranger contradicts your father. Will you and
your wife TOGETHER go straight into the cave to verify the presence of a lion
inside the cave? You have so many other options like the medical scientists who
try their newly-invented medicines on other species before they try on
themselves] Look at the imperfect, distant offspring of Adam and Eve—for
example Bank officials—how much checking and documentation they do before
sanctioning a loan to an applicant, before parting with the money entrusted to
them by others. In case of any doubt, they simply refuse to proceed!
5. Accounts projects woman as solely responsible for bringing
suffering into the world, just as in the similar accounts found in Middle East
religions of that time. [It is interesting to note that Jesus himself testifies
that there has been occurrences of diluting of Bible accounts to suit
the perceived superiority of man over woman.—Mark 10:1-12]
