The sin of the first man Adam brought this curse upon humanity, due to disobeying the command of God. At least that's how Christians see it.
Islam and Judaism have different takes on this story. For the purpose of this post, I will focus on the Christian interpretation.
Before I can get to this original sin chicanery, I need to explain Christian Cosmology:
Here are some verses you can look up and read to help frame the story below
All verses from King James Version:
Genesis 1:1-4, 16
Isaiah 14:12-15
Ezekiel 28:12-16
Revelation 12:3-4a, 7-9
1. There was God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, the triple god existing beyond space and time. God always was: The almighty, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being
2. At some point, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit created space and time.
3. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit created the angels and heavenly hosts. Out of all of these countless beings he created, he gave names to only three, Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer(another triplicate).
4. Unlike the other infinite nameless angels created, these three have their own identity, role, and personality.(Michael-warrior, Gabriel-messenger, Lucifer-musician)
5. At some point Lucifer got jealous of the angels and heavenly hosts praising God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Lucifer though he should be getting praise, too!
6. So Lucifer got 1/3 of the hosts of heaven to side wide him, and overthrow God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
7. There was a war in heaven, Lucifer and the 1/3 of angels that sided with him lost. They were cast down to the earth, or was it that they were put into Hell. I suppose at some point, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit made Hell.
8. After this, Genesis begins: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...
Note: If you read the first chapter of Genesis, it says nothing about the creation of angels or heavenly hosts. Neither does any of the bible discuss when angels and heavenly hosts got created. Nor does it say that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were present. The Spirit of the Lord is equated to be the Holy Spirit in later Christian theology and Jesus is nowhere to be found.
Now the original sin beginnings:
9. Eventually God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit created man and woman.
10. He placed them in a garden and told Adam that they could eat anything in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
11. Adam vanishes and a talking serpent(retrofitted to be Lucifer, now called Satan) convinced the woman(Eve, she didn't have a name yet) to eat a piece of fruit off of the tree of knowledge of god and evil.
12. She ate a piece and gave some to Adam. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit got upset. They cursed Adam, the woman, the serpent, and kicked them out of the garden.
13. After cursing everyone in the garden, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit put two angels with flaming swords at the entrance of the garden to make sure that Adam and the woman could not go back in and eat of the tree of life and live forever.
Here are a few more key verses to help frame the story above:
Genesis 1:11-12, 26-29
Genesis 2:9,15-18, 21-24
Genesis 3:1-6,12-16, 22-24
Note: Genesis 1:29
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.(emphasis added)
If God gave Adam every tree to eat from in this verse above, why did he lie about it in the following chapter?
Note: Genesis 2:16-17
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:(emphasis added)
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.(emphasis added)
So where did good and evil originate? They originated together on a tree in a garden that God created.
Bonus: Isaiah 45:7
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.(emphasis added)
Note: Genesis 3:1-5
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
God created the serpent, thought to be Satan in disguise. He left Adam in a bind with a contradictory command that would lead to punishment for his creation. Plus, the serpent could talk! How about that!
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (emphasis added)
If God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are the triplicate god, where did these other gods that the serpent apparently knew about come from? In many cultures around the world, the serpent represents divine knowledge and a serpent eating its tail, the ouroboros, represents infinite knowledge.
Note Genesis 3:22
22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Again, where did evil come from, please see Isaiah 45:7 above.
I guess God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit needed to eat from the tree of life to maintain their immortality. Wow !
This is just a story, but this false and dangerous concept has damaged countless numbers of people throughout history. People are not born evil or in sin, folk are just born. It is up to a person to make good on the life that they were given. My responsibility is to combat these wicked theological concepts and help people think for themselves. If I could get out of the fundamentalist christian matrix, anyone can, if they want to.
Oh my god, this is where my de-infestation of christianity began. The Doctrine of Original Sin, pure myth, but probably the biggest single source of psychological misery amongst christians.
ReplyDeleteI thought: "If there was no original sin, and indeed there is not, then there is nothing to be saved from and there was no reason for the Jesus character to be sacrificed."
At that point the walls of christianity started crashing down. It took a while, but eventually I found myself standing in a pile of christian doctrinal detritus. So, I swept it all away and started over.
I have never felt better in all my life.
H.
Yes, the flawed original sin concept does much more harm than good. I feel better too, H after evolving past all of that nonsense.
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