Do you believe that part of the Bible, in other words, do you believe that Adam and Eve could have continued living IF they did not eat from the tree of knowledge that God told them not to eat from? That part is crucial, in my opinion, to understanding and recognizing what the rest of the Bible means
Not sure what you mean. They did continue living, after eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, after they were banished. They could no longer get access to the Tree of Life, ie immortality, which is what they lost. IMO if they had not eaten from the forbidden tree, they would have remained in paradise
My take on it is in something I wrote for something else ie
Adam and Eve
God made man and woman and wished to give them freewill i.e. the right and ability to make choices, otherwise they would have been as slaves. You can’t descend from heaven and just give your people free-will, their awe of you will make them instant slaves. God wanted to give Adam and Eve freewill, wanted them to be free. He warned them not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, on pain of death BUT being perfect as we have already posited, God surely knew they would disobey.. God had sent one of His creations to offer the other choice to Eve i.e. to have knowledge of good and evil and all that entailed, and the serpent made it an enticing choice, to know what is good and what is not.
Eve made her choice and the exit from the garden was not a punishment, it was our choice. We chose to be free of the simple life and instead chose a much more arduous and yet more fulfilling path than just tending animals in the Garden. We were not tricked. We obtained what we wanted and still do, we obtained knowledge and self-awareness. i.e. before the decision was made Adam and Eve like animals, had no knowledge of themselves, no ability to see themselves. Like animals they were unable to stand outside themselves and view themselves objectively. We humans have been given that gift. No person is able to give another interpretation in keeping with the idea of God as perfection. God didn’t tempt Adam and Eve. For what purpose would he do that if God already knew, being so all-seeing that they would disobey? Utter illogical nonsense!
Yet that is what we have been taught for centuries. Why would we assume that God is either flawed or not so powerful? There is only one vaguely relevant counter –argument to the logic and it goes like this “The Lord works in mysterious ways” That is a very weak and useless argument. Another question one could ask is Why God, who could have created perfection did not make us perfect. The answer is simple. In the garden of Eden, we had perfection, no worries, fear, stress, dangers and so on but we chose freewill and self-awareness. We chose the world we now live in. We have freewill and that means we are not beholden nor ruled by a higher power. We have self-awareness which means we are aware of ourselves and the world around us. Unlike an animal which is set on a simple system of surviving i.e. by eating, sleeping defecating and procreating, we humans, should have no the fear of being controlled and because of self-awareness we have higher minds and more complex thought processes.
Our understanding of ourselves and our species grows ever deeper; because we have the capacity to study it. Freewill and self-awareness are two gifts from our Creator to us and religion has stolen these from us, telling us how to worship, and how to think of God.
Gen 2:17
But of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for on the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.
This is a threat, but also can read as you will lose your immortality.
If it is a threat then Adam and Eve's disobedience was not punished, God showed mercy and at the same time the choice we made to have freewill was taken even with the "proverbial gun" pointed at their heads. It had to be a severe enough threat to make any sense of the enormity of the choice.. Humanity wanted to know even on pain of death!
If it is a warning that they would begin the process of dying, which imo I do not think it is then the end result is still the same ie the choice we made to have freewill was taken even with the "proverbial gun" pointed at their heads, though this time it was the threat of losing immortality. IMO
Some of what you’re saying resonates with me. A sense of what’s good and right that you trust more than any scriptures, and a light that you see in Genesis through 9:19. You see that sense of what’s good and right as love for the God that you see in Genesis through 9:19. In this post I’ll call that sense “love of God.” The God in the rest of the Bible can not be that God. It might be something invented and perpetuated by some people to intimidate and fool others into doing what they want, however harmful it might be. Wherever it came from, that’s how it’s used. Apart from Genesis through 9:19, the Bible and the Quran are used to fool multitudes of people into doing things that serve some people’s interests at the expense of others, and grievously and needlessly so. Whatever light there might be in the Bible and the Quran is all in Genesis through 9:19.
You think that the religious court that you’re proposing would make it harder for people to use the Bible and the Quran to intimidate and fool people into doing things that are harmful.
More or less yes. IMO
Adam and Eve =freewill, self awareness God's forgiveness
Cain and Abel God's forgiveness
The rest up tp Gen 9:19 has not yet discussed on this thread
Does that look like what you’re trying to say, more or less?
