Is the tree of life symbolic?

General discussions about Christianity including salvation, heaven and hell, Christian history and so on.
kateliz
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Post by kateliz »

Oh grow-up, you know what I mean! :lol:
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AttentionKMartShoppers
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Post by AttentionKMartShoppers »

kateliz wrote:Oh grow-up, you know what I mean! :lol:
It's a queer world after all *put to music*
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voicingmaster
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Post by voicingmaster »

He says so after there are enough people running around. If they would have kept on going at it like they were, they would have diminished the gene pool in each individual group.
That doesn't change the fact that we're related if the Adam and Eve story was true. According to the Adam Eve story, you, me, everybody, we're all related.
Our chances of survival are increasing, we're just surviving more is what I'm thinking. Most of the world doesn't have a high average lifespan like in industrialized countries.
No, the entire world would suffer from retardation, among other deformaties. That happens with incest. And how do you explain different races with Adam and Eve? Whatever race Adam and Eve were, you can't spawn the many races we have now. Two pure whites can't have a black baby, b/c no matter how many babies the two whites have, it's just white blood on white blood, impossible for it to be black suddenly.
You have a problem. Jesus is basically called the opposite of Adam. Adam brought death into the world, and Jesus came to do the opposite. So, you do this, and Jesus has no purpose, because man didn't do anything to bring death into the world, God made death then.
No, we still sin, and thus the punishment of sin(death) would still come to us. Which could be part of the potential parable. Adam and Eve bit the fruit, they die, we sin, we die.
You can't call whatever you want to be a "story." Wow, you're tearing the Bible up
It is a possibility for it to be a myth. Look at the symbolism, symbolism doesn't usually happen in real life. Of course, not that it really matters. I mean, it either never happened at all and it was a myth to learn from, or it happened in the past and we can't do anything about it.
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Post by voicingmaster »

Mastermind wrote:
voicingmaster wrote:It's possible that the whole story of Adam and Eve was a myth inspired by God to get a point accross. Jesus told several stories to get points accross, and Jesus is a reflection of God, so it would make sense that God would do this as well. The moral of the story being that if you believe Satan over God, you will be punished, but if you would've stayed with God, you will continue to be blessed. Also, look at what Adam and Eve did when they bit the fruit, they hid and clothed themselves. They were trying to hide thier sin, just as some do know. Butt, no matter where you hide, God will find you, as He did in the Garden. Usually, symbolism rarely happens in real life.

Another thing that points to Adam and Eve being mythological, is the law of incest. In the Bible, incest is a sin. But however, if the Adam and Eve thing is true, then everybody is committing incest right now. Also, incest usually results in retardation or other deformaties, so the population o f Earth would be declining or getting worse by each generation, but that doesn't seem to be happening. In fact, our lifespans are increasing, just the opposite. Which could also mean that the story of Noah could also be a myth. Two animals of one kind is not enough to repopulate an area of said kind.
Actually, I know somebody who doesn't know whether to take Genesis as literal or not because he feels that it might be a parody of the cultures around it (Israel has a history of jokers so it wouldn't surprise me).
Are you suggesting that Moses put the story of Adam and Eve into Genesis just for giggles?
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Mastermind
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Post by Mastermind »

voicingmaster wrote:
Mastermind wrote:
voicingmaster wrote:It's possible that the whole story of Adam and Eve was a myth inspired by God to get a point accross. Jesus told several stories to get points accross, and Jesus is a reflection of God, so it would make sense that God would do this as well. The moral of the story being that if you believe Satan over God, you will be punished, but if you would've stayed with God, you will continue to be blessed. Also, look at what Adam and Eve did when they bit the fruit, they hid and clothed themselves. They were trying to hide thier sin, just as some do know. Butt, no matter where you hide, God will find you, as He did in the Garden. Usually, symbolism rarely happens in real life.

Another thing that points to Adam and Eve being mythological, is the law of incest. In the Bible, incest is a sin. But however, if the Adam and Eve thing is true, then everybody is committing incest right now. Also, incest usually results in retardation or other deformaties, so the population o f Earth would be declining or getting worse by each generation, but that doesn't seem to be happening. In fact, our lifespans are increasing, just the opposite. Which could also mean that the story of Noah could also be a myth. Two animals of one kind is not enough to repopulate an area of said kind.
Actually, I know somebody who doesn't know whether to take Genesis as literal or not because he feels that it might be a parody of the cultures around it (Israel has a history of jokers so it wouldn't surprise me).
Are you suggesting that Moses put the story of Adam and Eve into Genesis just for giggles?

Not the entire story, just bits and pieces. I think the core of the story still remains(the fall of man) but it could have been "dressed up" in elements from other cultures just to have a good laugh. Of course, if this is true, the humor was lost on the jews over the centuries.
Are you threatening me Master Skeptic?
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Post by The edge »

voicingmaster wrote:
He says so after there are enough people running around. If they would have kept on going at it like they were, they would have diminished the gene pool in each individual group.
That doesn't change the fact that we're related if the Adam and Eve story was true. According to the Adam Eve story, you, me, everybody, we're all related.
Our chances of survival are increasing, we're just surviving more is what I'm thinking. Most of the world doesn't have a high average lifespan like in industrialized countries.
No, the entire world would suffer from retardation, among other deformaties. That happens with incest. And how do you explain different races with Adam and Eve? Whatever race Adam and Eve were, you can't spawn the many races we have now. Two pure whites can't have a black baby, b/c no matter how many babies the two whites have, it's just white blood on white blood, impossible for it to be black suddenly.
You have a problem. Jesus is basically called the opposite of Adam. Adam brought death into the world, and Jesus came to do the opposite. So, you do this, and Jesus has no purpose, because man didn't do anything to bring death into the world, God made death then.
No, we still sin, and thus the punishment of sin(death) would still come to us. Which could be part of the potential parable. Adam and Eve bit the fruit, they die, we sin, we die.
You can't call whatever you want to be a "story." Wow, you're tearing the Bible up
It is a possibility for it to be a myth. Look at the symbolism, symbolism doesn't usually happen in real life. Of course, not that it really matters. I mean, it either never happened at all and it was a myth to learn from, or it happened in the past and we can't do anything about it.
When u have a doubt if your parent love you, u don't straight away conclude that they don't. There has been plenty of literature written on this gene pool things & race thing that'd change ur mind ... or at least make you feel that Genesis is less of a fairy tale. Question is, are you bothered enough to do that bit of research?
Numerous scientific studies have link man from all races to Africa or was it Ethiopia. Of course that may still be a bit wee off the common concept of where Mt Ararat or Eden is.
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Post by bizzt »

That doesn't change the fact that we're related if the Adam and Eve story was true. According to the Adam Eve story, you, me, everybody, we're all related.
If one believes in Evolution we are related to a Rock :wink:

No, the entire world would suffer from retardation, among other deformaties. That happens with incest. And how do you explain different races with Adam and Eve? Whatever race Adam and Eve were, you can't spawn the many races we have now. Two pure whites can't have a black baby, b/c no matter how many babies the two whites have, it's just white blood on white blood, impossible for it to be black suddenly.


However Adam And Eve were probably of a More Arabic Culture and where you live does affect how you look.
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Post by voicingmaster »

bizzt wrote:
That doesn't change the fact that we're related if the Adam and Eve story was true. According to the Adam Eve story, you, me, everybody, we're all related.
If one believes in Evolution we are related to a Rock :wink:
If you go back far enough, yes I suppose so. But, I'm not planning on marrying and having sex with the rock now am I? No, ergo it's not incest.


As for the race thing, it'd take more than 4000 years for the human races to diverse.
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Post by kateliz »

I think this incest thing is silly voicingmaster. At least as far as being a kind of phobic about this kind of "incest". I mean really, who cares as long as the person's far enough away on the geneological charts!
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Post by voicingmaster »

kateliz wrote:I think this incest thing is silly voicingmaster. At least as far as being a kind of phobic about this kind of "incest". I mean really, who cares as long as the person's far enough away on the geneological charts!
You don't understand. The geneology never gets dilluded. THey are all direct descendents of Adam and Eve. Cain and Seth both had sons and daughters, and if the Adam and Eve story is true, then they did it with thier sisters. Meaning, the entire gene pool is purely the bloodline of Adam and Eve.

And that's not even the point. My view on incest is completly irrelevant. Just b/c I think it's gross doesn't mean it wouldn't happen. However, the point is is that God declared incest wrong, yet He told us to go forth and multiply. Conflicting orders if the the story of Adam and Eve is true.
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Post by Dan »

voicingmaster wrote:
kateliz wrote:I think this incest thing is silly voicingmaster. At least as far as being a kind of phobic about this kind of "incest". I mean really, who cares as long as the person's far enough away on the geneological charts!
You don't understand. The geneology never gets dilluded. THey are all direct descendents of Adam and Eve. Cain and Seth both had sons and daughters, and if the Adam and Eve story is true, then they did it with thier sisters. Meaning, the entire gene pool is purely the bloodline of Adam and Eve.

And that's not even the point. My view on incest is completly irrelevant. Just b/c I think it's gross doesn't mean it wouldn't happen. However, the point is is that God declared incest wrong, yet He told us to go forth and multiply. Conflicting orders if the the story of Adam and Eve is true.
He declared incest wrong when giving the law to Moses. Things could've been different before-hand, for example we can assume Adam & Eve had perfect genes that didn't have any flaws. As time went on incest became increasingly more dangerous because of how it makes hereditary diseases pop up more often. When it became dangerous, we can assume God outlawed it for our own good.
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Post by voicingmaster »

It's still incest, regardless of when God administered said law. Your genes don't suddenly change when a new rule is made.
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Post by jerickson314 »

voicingmaster wrote:It's still incest, regardless of when God administered said law. Your genes don't suddenly change when a new rule is made.
This isn't what Dan said. He said that the rule changed after the genes changed. Not the other way around.

Basically:
1.) God creates Adam and Eve with perfect genes, so that incest isn't a problem.
2.) Over generations and generations, the genes become corrupted and incest approaches becoming a problem.
3.) God bans incest.
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Post by voicingmaster »

jerickson314 wrote:
voicingmaster wrote:It's still incest, regardless of when God administered said law. Your genes don't suddenly change when a new rule is made.
This isn't what Dan said. He said that the rule changed after the genes changed. Not the other way around.

Basically:
1.) God creates Adam and Eve with perfect genes, so that incest isn't a problem.
2.) Over generations and generations, the genes become corrupted and incest approaches becoming a problem.
3.) God bans incest.
No, whether or not Adam and Eve had perfect genes is irrelevant. Two seconds before God gave the law against incest, we, every human, are direct relations to each other. Now, we would still be related. Incest would continue on in every human.
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Post by jerickson314 »

voicingmaster wrote:No, whether or not Adam and Eve had perfect genes is irrelevant. Two seconds before God gave the law against incest, we, every human, are direct relations to each other. Now, we would still be related. Incest would continue on in every human.
"Incest" is usually defined as involving a close relationship, not just a relationship. Marrying your 43rd cousin twice removed isn't normally defined as "incest", much less someone who shares distant, distant ancestors like Adam and Eve.

The biblical law actually lists which relationships constitute incest.
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