Genesis 4-7

[wolfpurplemoon]

Lots of begatting and an out of proportion flood from an ever vengeful God:

* Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel and was cursed by God but lived on to have his own family, with a mysterious wife who came from where? And then lots of sons were born and had children with other women that appear from nowhere, hmm...

* Biblical people had ridiculously long life-spans, I'm talking 700-950 years or so, even those cursed to die (like Adam who ate from the tree of knowledge)

* God brings the flood because the Nephalim were causing the humans to be immoral and he regretted making humans, so he killed every living thing that wasn't in the 600 year old Noah's ark. Seems like a bit of an over reaction...

Comments

Re: Where the women came from

[sawa1sy.livejournal.com]

I beleive Cain found Lily.

Or there were other humans, that made the same mistake in was banished.

Seeing a Cain could have meet his sisters. Seeing as he was doomed to walk the earth. On the other side of earth no less.

Re: Where the women came from

[sawa1sy.livejournal.com]

Saw it on a documentary. Banned from the bible. She was token out when the first priests were 'editing' the bible.

The "other" people

[(Anonymous)]

Wolf, I applaud you reading the bible. I believe, but have decided to start a personal journey to read and study the entire bible, something that I have not done until now.

There were questions about who Cain might have married. I had the very same question growing up, and still had as I started reading the bible on my journey. Any time I came across something that seemed to be a contradiction, or didn't make sense, I jotted information down and proceeded to see what I could find. This website helped explain it in greater detail, and makes a lot of sense.

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c004.html

I took a look at the Skeptic's Annotated Bible that you mention in your resource. Though I didn't spend a lot of time looking at it, it appears that only a skeptics view is given. I looked at Genesis, and it seems to just point out inconsistencies, but does NOT give a Christian view on these inconsistencies.

I would challenge you to research some of the things you question, a little more indepth. Not only taking a Skeptics viewpoint into consideration, but also that of Christian's.

Most Christian's can't properly answer many of the questions you would have, just as I have received the ever popular answer of "That's where FAITH comes in!" when I asked such questions when I was a teenager. I'd rather get an in depth, quality, Bible backed answer, than the "you need to just have faith and not question things" answer that I'm accustomed to receiving. I think it would help your personal journey. I hope that you come out the other side of your journey as a Christian!

Please also keep one other thing in mind. The Bible was written by an imperfect being...Man. Though God gave the inspiration, Man has continuously translated the Bible, and things have been lost.

I'll post here again tomorrow, once I have an account so that there is a name attached to this post, and I can see any comments made.

Until then, Good night.

Robert

Re: The "other" people

[bobbydiv.livejournal.com]

I decided to go ahead and create the profile. This way I can track your journal. I think it's interesting to see someone else on the same Journey as myself, even if it's a different path.

Re: The "other" people

[wolfpurplemoon]

Thankyou for your interest in what I'm doing, and for being fairly reasonable in comparison to some who've passed by here!

If you wish to offer the Christian perspective at any time, then I will read it, the fact that you aren't willing to just blindly accept the 'just have faith' response is very heartening to hear.

Oh and I hope you won't be too disappointed when I don't come out from reading the bible as a Christian, I'm not exactly reading to find some sort of spiritual answer or anything. I'd say I'm very secure and happy as an atheist.

[unw0rthys3rv4nt.livejournal.com]

2 things:
1. God is vengeful
2. Genesis is not a detailed account

Question: if you plant a tree and it won't produce fruit, what would you do with it?

[wolfpurplemoon]

I'd probably think I'd done something wrong to cause it not to grow fruit so I'd get some advice on how to get the tree to produce fruit.

If, as I suspect, you're not actually interested in my agricultural insights but are in fact comparing non-conforming fruit trees to humans who won't follow God's rules, then that's a terrible metaphor.

The tree may need pulling up due to disease, and that would just be good management because that disease could spread to other trees, but it is wrong to wipe out all the humans because a few won't follow rules, that would be like burning down the whole orchard because of that one bad tree.

I guess I just don't think like this tyrannical God.

[unw0rthys3rv4nt.livejournal.com]

And if that disease had spread to your entire orchard?

By what standard do you determine right or wrong?

And I can guarantee you that you don't think anything like "this tyrannical" God.

[wolfpurplemoon]

There is a very different morality in tending diseased trees and destroying human civilisation because they are apparently misbehaving.

There was already a huge discussion about the fact that atheists manage quite well to know right from wrong without having the threat of God's wrath/an eternity in hell hanging over us, not sure which post it was on, but I don't think there's much more to add to what was said there.

Re: The "other" people

[(Anonymous)]

I realize this is an old post.. But I just want to give a little food for thought... The Bible is pretty big already, it is realistic to imagine that you can't fit every single minute detail inside something you can carry. And God is omnipotent, if he made Adam and Eve, is it not unexpected that he could make a few more to the mix? The Bible may not state it, but I do not think this is an unrealistic theory.

Re: The "other" people

[wolfpurplemoon]

The thing is, after making such a big deal about creating the first man and woman it seems odd that their own descendants are detailed but not the other people who were surely (in the logic of the bible) also created by God. It's not that much of a minor detail really.