Re: the whole "tree of knowledge" thing. It was supposed to grant knowledge of Good and Evil, which would supposedly turn A&E into gods but in the context of the story meant "Look, we're naked!"
Disregarding whether it would be better to recognise the concepts of Good and Evil and understand the difference between them, there is another point that occurred to me which I've never seen addressed anywhere. Apologists often love to trump the point about YHWH lying when it said eating from the tree would cause death, with the line that A&E did die, just not straight away; had they not partaken they would have lived forever.
But wasn't there another forbidden tree, of Life, of which the all-unknowing YHWH was afraid his pets would also eat and become immortal? Oops - plot hole.
Back to the theme of this thread, it's so tempting to write out a huge laundry list of reasons to hate religion, but having thought some more there is another point I want to add. Namely the ridiculous and frankly insulting condescension of such people, made worse when it's well-intentioned. Back when my poor, sweet princess Sam and I started our IVF programme, we would get the odd neighbour and acquaintance or two shaking our hands and saying they'll pray for us. Then after the first IVF cycle didn't take, the same people told us how sorry they were and that they'd pray for us. Now, in the almost eighteen months since my beloved was ripped from my life at the obscenely young age of 31, those people have yet to offer to pray for me or Sam, a situation for which I am thankful. The whole thing is a scam, a shell game, and I refuse to play.
Disregarding whether it would be better to recognise the concepts of Good and Evil and understand the difference between them, there is another point that occurred to me which I've never seen addressed anywhere. Apologists often love to trump the point about YHWH lying when it said eating from the tree would cause death, with the line that A&E did die, just not straight away; had they not partaken they would have lived forever.
But wasn't there another forbidden tree, of Life, of which the all-unknowing YHWH was afraid his pets would also eat and become immortal? Oops - plot hole.
Back to the theme of this thread, it's so tempting to write out a huge laundry list of reasons to hate religion, but having thought some more there is another point I want to add. Namely the ridiculous and frankly insulting condescension of such people, made worse when it's well-intentioned. Back when my poor, sweet princess Sam and I started our IVF programme, we would get the odd neighbour and acquaintance or two shaking our hands and saying they'll pray for us. Then after the first IVF cycle didn't take, the same people told us how sorry they were and that they'd pray for us. Now, in the almost eighteen months since my beloved was ripped from my life at the obscenely young age of 31, those people have yet to offer to pray for me or Sam, a situation for which I am thankful. The whole thing is a scam, a shell game, and I refuse to play.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
