Dutch87 wrote:
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quote="GnosticBishop"]
Windigo wrote:
I agree with the OP.
If God wanted us to understand what evil is, we must be able to know what good is and vice versa. We must be able to sin in order to refrain from it. So the knowledge of good and evil is a necessary thing in the understanding of the meaning of life.
Without it we would have remained in a state of (ignorant) bliss as we were in the garden of evil. Like a child, we were ignorant of the evil of the world but also unable to grow and learn until we experienced pain and learned what ''bad'' means.
So ultimately, God created a perfect imperfect world. To appreciate perfection, we must know imperfection. This knowledge frees the mind.
Thanks.
Intelligent as compared to Yo El who thinks A & E should have stayed as bright as bricks and too stupid to even reproduce.
Christians will not acknowledge that Genesis and Eden are Jewish myths that they interpret to be our elevation and not our fall.
Christians think it a fall for humans to develop a moral sense. That is why they can follow a genocidal son murdering God.
Regards
DL
Lots of generalisations here. I consider myself a Christian and I acknowledge both the Jewish origin of Genesis and its allegorical nature. I also agree that eating the forbidden fruit is equal to acquiring moral reason. Whether that is a good thing is open for debate.
Open for debate, where?
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The reason why eating of the fruit may be considered as the fall of humanity is because the ability to know about evil also appears to generate the ability to perpetrate evil. This can be evidenced by two things: the evil that humans do to other lifeforms and the planet at large and the evil that humans do to each other.
It was not considered a fall by intelligent people who know the value of a moral sense.
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Moral reasoning is one of the ways that set humans apart from other animals, but is that a good thing?
Yes. This is common knowledge.
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It has enabled us to build complex civilisations and to make great technological advances, but we are currently destroying the planet to the point that life may become unsustainable. We have also contributed greatly to the extinction of many other species and their habitats. Now we are even contributing to our own extinction. Even though God, according to the Bible, has a special place in His heart for humanity, He is also the Creator of other lifeforms. From the perspective of these lifeforms (and God's I think) we are clearly a parasitic species.
Fear not. We cannot hurt this planet in any permanent way. Mankind may be a different story.
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And what about the way we treat each other? We have seen great wars, and the capacity for human greed is large. The acquisition of reason makes us ambitious and hardworking, but it also seems we are never satisfied. We always want more. This preoccupation with ourselves and wanting more may be a consequence of our pride. Pride is the price we pay for the acquistion of moral reasoning. And pride does seem to come before the fall (even our own extinction?).
Our selfish gene is what has made us what we are. Without it we would have gone extinct.
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Undoubtedly this perspective is but one way to look at it. But after all this can you blame God for thinking that ignorance is bliss? Rousseau for thinking that human morality at its best has humans living as noble
savages? Are we and the world so much better off because humans are (or think of themselves as) special?[/quote]
Yes. If we did not think as we do, we would likely not be and would have gone extinct.
You seem to want to bite the hand that feeds you.
Regards
DL
02 Apr 2017, 9:44 am
