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The Bible: Is the Garden of Eden story true?
Is the Bible's account of the Garden of Eden true?
answered by Michael R. Burch
No, the biblical account of the Garden of Eden is a badly-told fairy tale … and
if it were true the biblical "god" would be the "original sinner"!
The writers of the bible were not very good at logic, morality, or keeping their
stories straight. The idea that the bible was authored by an all-wise,
enlightened being would be tremendously amusing, if not for all the harm
bible-inspired beliefs have
done to the world. For instance, think of all the nonconformist women murdered
as "witches" because the bible says "witches" must not be allowed to live.
First, the bible is wrong because there are no women with supernatural powers.
Second, even if there were women with supernatural powers, no one could give
them a fair trial. A truly wise God would understand such things. The primitive men who
wrote the bible erroneously believed that women could be "witches" and they ignored the
fact that they lacked any way to prove who had done what.
Slavery is another example.
As Mark Twain pointed out, prior to the Civil War the Bible was used in churches
and schools throughout the American South to "prove" that slavery was "the will
of God." There would have been no American slavery if the writers of the Bible
had been wise enough to prohibit it. Doing so would have saved more than 600,000
lives and the destruction of large parts of the southern states. It also would
have spared millions of African Americans the horrors and humiliations of
slavery.
Another example is the homophobia created by bible verses that call
homosexuality a "sin" and an "abomination." We now know that human sexuality is
governed by genes and hormones. I did not choose to be a heterosexual; I was
born that way. Other people were born homosexual or bisexual. The authors of the
bible were unaware of genes and hormones, so they made terrible mistakes that
still plague us in what should be the Age of Reason.
I read the bible from cover to cover as a boy, and it was obvious to me that the
biblical "god" was evil, although there is no reason to believe that he actually
exists. There are too many errors and contradictions in the bible for me to believe any of
it. An all-wise "god" would not have made so many gargantuan
mistakes. For instance, in the Genesis creation account trees and plants
were created before the sun! We all know that didn't happen. And it's obvious
from the fossil record that trillions of animals suffered and died before human
beings existed. Therefore, Adam and Eve cannot be blamed for suffering and death
entering the world. If there is a Creator, that is where the responsibility for
suffering and death resides.
If the Genesis account were true, it would mean the biblical "god" murdered
Adam and Eve on false charges, since he had denied them the knowledge of good
and evil, meaning they couldn’t possibly know it was "wrong" to eat the forbidden
fruit. It was like putting a bottle of poisoned milk in front of babies
incapable of understanding the danger. No good parent would do that. The lethal
fruit would have been placed safely out of reach by any good parent. The great English
poet-artist-mystic William Blake called the biblical "god" Nobodaddy because no
one would want him for a father.
According to whoever wrote Genesis, the biblical "god" was the first murderer
because he murdered innocent animals to
give their skins to Adam and Eve as clothes. Why didn’t he use his superpowers
to give them clothes of cotton or wool?
The biblical "god" then murdered Adam and Eve unjustly, since he was the abusive,
neglectful father responsible for the fruit being eaten.
The biblical "god" also murdered all the animals even though they didn’t eat the
fruit or obtain the knowledge of good and evil. According to the "logic" of
Genesis, the animals should never have suffered or died, since they didn’t
obtain the knowledge of good and evil.
The biblical "god" would go on to slaughter trillions of innocent animals in a
global flood, along with multitudes of children, babies and unborns. How can
Christians claim abortion is a "sin" and that their "god" considers human life
to be "sacred" when the bible portrays him as a serial abortionist and mass
murderer of innocents? For Christians to claim their "god" considers human life
to be "sacred" is one of the great ironies. If he considered human life to be
sacred, he could not have murdered Adam and Eve.
The biblical "god" murdered Lot's wife for looking over her shoulder at the home
she was losing. What sort of monster murders a woman for looking back
regretfully at her house and hometown going up in flames? What would Christians
say about a fireman who murdered the victim of an inferno for looking back? They
would call him a monster, and yet they call Yahweh (Jehovah) "good" when he
murders a fleeing woman?
The biblical "god" kept hardening the Egyptian pharaoh's heart so that he could
demonstrate his powers by mass-murdering multitudes of animals, children and
babies. Why didn't he use his superpowers to put the Egyptians to sleep and let
the Israelites leave peacefully, then cover their tracks to keep them from being
pursued?
The biblical "god"—either directly or through his
prophets—commanded the worst crimes known to mankind: slavery, sex slavery, the
stoning of children for misdemeanors (a truly ghastly method of execution for
anyone, much less a child), infanticide, matricide, ethnic cleansing and
genocide (the slaughter of "everything that breathes"). How can anyone claim
this evil "god" was "good"?
In conclusion, the Genesis account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is a badly-told fairy tale that makes the biblical
"god" a serial mass
murderer. How can so many Christians claim this evil "god" was "good"? Did
they fail to receive the knowledge of good and evil? Were they gypped by their "god"
because they don't know evil when they read about it, meaning that according to
the logic of Genesis they should never suffer or die?
How can they not know that what was done to Adam and Eve was evil? How can they
not know that what was done to the animals was evil? How can they not know that
what was done to Lot's wife was evil? How can they not know that it was evil for
Jehovah to keep hardening the pharaoh's heart so that he could murder more
animals and children? If any man had that sort of power and did those terrible
things, we would call him evil beyond belief—a monster.
Perhaps the closest we have come to that sort of monstrosity was Adolph Hitler,
and no one in his/her right mind calls Hitler "good." But even Hitler didn't
murder all the animals,
all the children,
all the babies,
all the unborns. If the bible were
true, its "god" would be the greatest monster of all time, but there is no
reason to believe such badly-told fairy tales are true.
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What did Jesus teach about Hell?
Is the Bible infallible, or the inerrant word of God?
Was hell in the Original Bible?
Is the word "hell" in the Bible?
Is "hell"
mentioned in the Old Testament?
Hell in the New Testament
How
many times is "hell" mentioned in the Bible?
Hell is not Biblical!
Hell is not in the Bible!
Hell in Hebrew
www.thereisnohell.com
www.tentmaker.org
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