quote:
Originally posted by Godismyfather:
Ok, I am a Christian and believe in God w/ my whole heart (at least I try, but it's human nature to doubt). But I need to know the answer so I can try to believe and push the doubt. Does anyone know why God gave us and Lucifer a chance if He knew ahead of time that Lucifer would rebel and Eve would eat the apple? Especially the Lucifer one, he's the one who started it. So why'd He give him a chance? And why did He even mske the Tree of Knowledge if they couldn't eat from it and there'd always be a chance? Is it true the tree bore different fruit each month?If someone could answer that, I'd be very much apreaciative. Thanx.
P.S. I don't mind if atheists want to try to answer this by saying that God isn't real, but please don't be like "DUH!!! THE REASON IS BECAUSE THERE IS NO GOD, THERE IS NO LUCIFER, AND THERE NEVER WAS AN EVE!!"
I used to be a Christian, but I am an Agnostic, not an Atheist.
Did it ever occur to you that parts (especially Genesis), if not much, of the Bible are stories rather than literal truth? Allegory? Lessons? Beautiful, poetic, but not literal, expanations of how and why things came to be?
Isn't it the easy, simplistic way to read the Bible to read it literally rather than symbolically? If you read it as if every word is to be taken utterly at face value, some parts don't even make sense, such as Psalms, which is love poetry. Since when are you supposed to take poetry as literal?
There are many myths and stories which were passed down through many generations by ancient people which they used as explanations of why there is evil in the world, etc. What makes you so sure that your particular preferred story is any more literally true than any other?
Now, if you don't think that the story is literally true, then you have a theological problem. You are having a problem reconciling an all-knowing, all-powerful God who supposedly loves us, his children, with his allowing Satan to have any chance at all. If he is all-knowing, why did he create Eve to do what she did and then punish her for what she knew she would do? He set her up, IOW. So, the idea of free will is an illusion, because God is controlling everything, and God creates us with the knowledge that we will sin and make mistakes. Also, if God is all-knowing and all-powerful, then why can't he just crush Satan and end suffering and evil?
Well, this problem is one of the reasons I never was a Biblical literalist, and, frankly, why I am not a Christian.
I agree that this is a big problem to reconcile for the thinking Christian. OTOH, lots of Christians, I imagine, do manage to figure it all out. Good luck with it.
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