The Garden of Eden

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Barry Hofstetter wrote:


> >The following excerpt is from Freethought Today, October 1997, Page 7

> >"Breaking The Chains of Modern Myth" by Scott Hatfield

> >(First Place - Saul Jakel Memorial Award)

>

> Ooh, impressive.  Looks like he is using the childish definition of myth

> as "something old and not true."

>

> >"I was particularly troubled to realize that I, like all the cursed

> >descendants of Adam and Eve, would have to die because of their

> >disobedience to God.  I could not understand why there even was a Tree

> >of Knowledge of Good and Evil in Eden if its fruit would be forbidden to

> >humankind, and more importantly, why it was wrong in the first place.

> >Why would God want people to be ignorant of good and evil?  How could

> >God hold Adam and Eve accountable for doing wrong if they did not have

> >knowledge they were doing wrong until after they had already done it?

> >And why should all people born since then have to pay for their

> >disobedience?"

>

> It's a shame that such a person has to project his ignorance in this way.

> I can recommend an extensive bibliography which will cure his lack of

> understanding, should he so desire.

>

>


    Hi Barry,

    So hwhich list are you on, errancy or xtianity? I just logged back on
errancy Friday. Did you ever get through the exchange I forwarded between
myself and "Alcuin" ?

    Anyway, apart from the biblography you reccommend, do you have any
particular insights to offer on just what the "lack of understanding" is
above?

   I.e., just where was Adam supposed to get a sense that it was WRONG to
disobey a command? "Good and evil" is pretty much synonomous with "Right and
wrong". Try chasing the definitions around in a dictionary for awhile -- no
extensive bibliography required. The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil"
could as easily be called the "tree of the knoledge of right and wrong" or
the "tree of the knowledge of moral obligation".

    So, absent the knowledge of right and wrong or of moral obligation in
general, just how was Adam supposed to KNOW that he was doing anyting WRONG
??


     Ciao.

--
       Michael Fisher, ET1/SS USN ret., lawstudent

       http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/logic.html

       http://home.aol.com/Mfish6994

        *               *               *

      He that would make his own liberty secure,
      must guard even his enemy from oppression;
      for if he violates this duty,
      he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

                                              Thomas Paine

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