@Fido,
Sapiens Fossor;104186 wrote:By planting the tree, it was test. I suppose God knew we were going to fail but if we are created in God's image and we hope then God must hope too. We failed the test so God sent Jesus to save us from our sins. As to your question about why should you have to inherit Adam and Eve's sin, if you had been in the garden and innocent of all evil as they were you probably would've eaten from the tree just out of curiosity as they did. Their sin is yours because you, even if you won't admit it, would've done the exact same thing.
This seems to be yet another unique version of the well-known myth of Adam and Eve. So God tested God? Let's not forget folks that this story is not actually truth. It's a story about creation that came about thousands of years after the so-called creation story took place.
Meaning that it was made up and manifested by the creative mind of man. It was not actually a historical event, it's a story and quite possibly a story with metaphorical meaning.
Shostakovich;104603 wrote:This is a highly potent and insightful queston, is it not ... I've thought about this long and hard all my life, and the only answer that the scriptures offer is this: Christ paid the penalty for all of our sins. The O.T. has the symbolic sacrifice of the lamb which forshadowed the N.T. sacrifice of Christ. Since he, as the Word, created all, then there was also the need for God, as the creator, to also pay the penalty for the transgressions of those to whom he gave life (knowing fully well that we could not possibly live completely free from transgressing His laws). This is only partially the answer to the question of why we as individuals, cannot be held fully accountable for our actions. If God had never created anything, there would be no such thing as sin. But then there would be no creation. It's both give and take, on God's part, for pursuing the work of creation. The take on His part was dying on the cross for us.
It is a great question yet some believe that this story is actually a true account of the creation of man, not by evidence but by faith. We've sort of made the story our own story and adjusted it to meet the needs of followers.
Christ dying on the cross was also an important story but the question remains is it actually true. In all my research I can't find any evidence leading to the truth in this. I did discover that those who were crucified during those days were documented as such and to my knowledge there has been no documentation of a man named Jesus Christ being crucified. Besides, I think the crucifixion of Christ is something we do everyday when we crucify our neighbors or our enemies.
So the validity of the story of Adam and Eve all the way through Christ comes to question. In order for any of this to be believed, one must embrace faith because evidence as such is non-existent but the evidence of other instances that took place around the same time is.
So basically, if you have faith that Adam and Eve is the true historical documentation for the birth of mankind, then their original sin applies to you and your life. If you are like myself and spend hours upon hours examining and searching for the reasons why you should believe it, and come up empty handed, it's only logical to consider this as a story. A novel written by one man and exploded and expounded upon by another.
The choice of inheritance of this 'original sin' becomes a personal one based on faith, not on logic and not on evidence but on faith alone. If you choose to have faith in stories, then that's up to the individual. Those who give stock to this story are thus inheriting it's mythological meaning.
Remember, our minds set the stages for our lives. We control our thoughts and beliefs and likewise attract. Furthermore, we also limit ourselves in the same manner. We are limited not by the limits placed by others upon ourselves but ourselves alone create the limitations of our faith or our desire to seek the actual truth.
I'm not trying to knock the faithful here but faith only goes so far and when faith isn't supported by evidence and/or logic, there's a big question mark.
I personally do not believe that Adam and Eve or their story is literal truth and therefore am not subject to the inheritance of their sin. I know however, based on research that the only evidence of sin in this world is that which man carries on his/her shoulder. If our sin is inherited by the 'story' then we are not responsible. If our sin is created by us, then we are responsible. If we are not responsible for our sin, then there's very little we can do about it. If we are responsible for our sins, then we are also responsible for doing something about it. So in my mind, Adam and Eve is more of a cop out to alleviate responsibility and place the burden of change on some mythical God... thus the reason for the waiting for the second coming of the Christ and The Armageddon.
So it becomes personal choice. Now, the evidence of our placing this burden upon the shoulders of a mythical deity has not done justice to our world and our society. Instead we can just sin over and over again and still be forgiven because we are washed by the blood of the lamb. Evidence shows clerics in the church can molest children and be forgiven. Evidence also shows that we can murder, abuse, torture, and all the other evil things and acts that humankind commits, and still be forgiven because NO SIN is unforgivable because Jesus Christ came, died and rose again in accordance with the scriptures...
... Leading us to the evidence of today. The evidence shows clearly, IMHO that this is obviously not the best way of approaching otherwise our societies would have improved and become more Christ-like. Instead we blame Satan for the sins and take the burden of responsibility off our own shoulders giving us the freedom to sin and still be forgiven.
Do you see where I'm going with this. It's a bunch of hogwash. Humankind needs to take responsibility for what we've done and likewise share in the responsibility of changing it for the better.
