Atheist Bible Study 1: Genesis

[Whateverist]

Ok, next passage:

The Fall

Probably the first philosophically interesting passage. Who would like to give this an analysis? Doesn't matter what type of analysis, anything is fine.

This has always struck me as - to put it mildly - a morally bankrupt story.  God punishes Adam and Eve for doing something they could not possibly have known was wrong.  Yes, he told them not to eat of the Tree Of Knowledge Of Good And Evil.  But until they gained that knowledge, they couldn't have known that disobeying God was an evil act.

Boru

Of course if you see God as representing in character-form something which is really a natural consequence then it is more comprehensible.  By becoming wiser we just do lose innocence and so symbolically eject ourselves from the garden of the innocents.  But in a time when no one has that insight, why not envision it as the vengeance of a spiteful god?

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It probably doesn't work to apply a modern author/work of fiction idea to these ancient stories which probably evolved from an oral tradition.  But regardless, we are still in danger of missing the point of the story by virtue that attempt to impose an order to stories which have different lineages.

I would think the biggest danger arises from attempting to make a story into a historical fact that should be accepted against reason.

Yeah, I wasn't holding it up as the worst of the worse.  Your point is well taken, it just doesn't compete with mine since it is entirely separate.