I don't buy the Church's spin on the Biblical story.

I have a question to ask of any believer. If God is all powerful why would he knowingly create a being that was going to eventually turn against him, deceive his creation into following him in his treason and eventually punish the people for buying into what was, for all intents and purposes, a 'Godly Mistake'?

That is why I turned away from the Church many years ago. As a *child* I was able to see through this gaping hole of logic, but the reason I would side with the Serpent is because he actually argued for freedom.

God forbode man of eating from the tree of knowledge. I'm curious if the believers out there have considered that. Where would man be without knowledge?

God said that to eat from that tree man would become just like He. Have believers considered that?

He made us in his image apparently, but he couldn't handle having a creation that shared intellect. He wanted slaves.

Give me knowledge and freedom!

Interesting biblical question. I don't know anybody has the answer though. I guess it comes down to "faith". As to the Terra Papers, I don't find myself considering them with any less (or more) validity than any other religious text. Anyway, imh(f)o.

Peace.

If God is all powerful why would he knowingly create a being that was going to eventually turn against him

Because it is an inevitability. When you have a planet of 7 billion people, you are going to have 1 tiger woods, 1 michael jordan, 1 michaelangelo, there will always be one master of any category you want to look into; chess, cooking, murders, rapes, auto design, wars, etc.

You yourself probably want to have kids or will want to one day. You have no idea how they will turn out and yet they have equally the same potential to be killers as they do to be civilized members of society.

and eventually punish the people for buying into what was, for all intents and purposes, a 'Godly Mistake'

Does God punish? Or do we punish ourselves? You might want to review your angles on these topics. Remember, a majority view isn't always right.

but the reason I would side with the Serpent is because he actually argued for freedom.

He argued for freedom as a trick. That would be like me telling you that if you do heroin, your eyes will be opened and you will know the truth. Technically I wouldn't be lying .......I would just be rephrasing the fact that your eyes would be open to how addicted your butt now is and that you are now a slave to what I showed you.

God forbode man of eating from the tree of knowledge. I'm curious if the believers out there have considered that. Where would man be without knowledge?

You might want to review the Eastern Orthodoxy interpretation of Genesis. What's interesting is that their interpretation is actually similar to that of most religions.

Paraphrased: In the beginning we were with God, knew God, had Oneness with God, and there was no ego or separation anywhere. Then the serpent tricked us into eating of this fruit which meant putting on an ego, or an aspect that presents to us separation from each other and from God.

Now we are working on getting back to the original garden or shall I say original state of non-ego.

Genesis is allegorical.

He made us in his image apparently, but he couldn't handle having a creation that shared intellect. He wanted slaves.

Your missing the point. We all come from God, we all pre-existed before this. We are all individual drops from the ocean that is God. It's impossible for God to have slaves. Thats putting a human characteristic, a want of slaves, on God who is beyond the human notion of wants/ego/duality.

Move beyond these views. Research Christian Mysticism, Gospel of Thomas, Advaita, Vasistha, Tao, Eastern Orthodoxy, nonduality ......then after tons of research you come back to the Bible and see everything in a whole new light.

Dont listen to what Westernized Xtianity tells you. Its all covered up with this theology based on logic and reason. God is beyond logic and reason, beyond good and evil, beyond all these chracteristics your trying to put on her/him/it/all of it.


[edit on 8-8-2009 by dominicus]

I would side with the sons of the serpent.

The serpent in my mind represents our creators. Further evolved beings with higher technology who created us as slaves and are responsible for all division and devastation amongst us.

Originally posted by JayinAR
I am speaking of the Church's endtime scenario. God and Serpent. Battle.
I'll fight with the Serpent.

Personally, I don't think there will ever be any final battle. I suspect mankind will always be in on-going struggle between what constructive things we are capable of doing, versus what destructive things we are capable of doing. We don't need a serpent to tell us all to kill one another, we do that pretty well on our own.