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Your thoughts on this question?

Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:17 pm
by rockman0
I'm hoping this is the right place. If not, please correct me.

Anyways, as I mentioned before, I'm a member of this "self-exploration" forum called SoulPancake. The website is filled with atheists who feel the need to try and debunk the beliefs of Christians on the website. Well, one of the questions that one of them posted was, "If Adam and Eve didn't know of good and evil, then why did God punish them for eating from the Tree of Knowledge?" They went on to explain the question as, "since they did not know right from wrong, then they wouldn't have known that disobeying God was wrong."

Obviously, this is a logical fallacy, but just out of curiousity, how would you guys have replied?

Re: Your thoughts on this question?

Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:41 pm
by neo-x
well, I'm sure there could be a lot of good explanations but simply put, the point for punishment was not that they ate from the tree and had the knowledge of good and evil. The point was whether they can keep a commandment of God, can they obey even in the face of alternative logic (which the devil gave them, irrelevant if it was right or wrong). it has nothing to do with the tree. God could have said, don't cross a certain boundary of eden and disobeying would have had the same effect.

You see it was about trust, trust between God and man. like a father when he goes away, he tells his child to not do something stupid or wrong and then leaves him alone because the father trusts that his son will obey. and if the son disobeys and is punished (most atheists would say) why punish when you know it was his first mistake or he was innocent. the punishment was not intended to be "wrath for means of justifying a wrong" it was because man in his time on earth had yet to go a long way and his punishment was to teach him a lesson. not to humiliate him. this punishment was not a choice it was a reaction, a consequence. and man had to learn that. or other wise he would end up spoiled. just like a child would if he doesn't know the ramifications of his actions. And like a good father God never alienated man, he waited for him to grow up, to be mature, until a time when Jesus can come and redeem him.

thats pretty much what i would have replied.

Re: Your thoughts on this question?

Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:01 pm
by B. W.
rockman0 wrote:I'm hoping this is the right place. If not, please correct me.

Anyways, as I mentioned before, I'm a member of this "self-exploration" forum called SoulPancake. The website is filled with atheists who feel the need to try and debunk the beliefs of Christians on the website. Well, one of the questions that one of them posted was, "If Adam and Eve didn't know of good and evil, then why did God punish them for eating from the Tree of Knowledge?" They went on to explain the question as, "since they did not know right from wrong, then they wouldn't have known that disobeying God was wrong."

Obviously, this is a logical fallacy, but just out of curiousity, how would you guys have replied?
God did not punish, Gen 3:24 states God cast man out into a world of man's own making. So how is it going for you?

Enjoy stealing faith away from people, forcing them to bow to nihilism? Becarful, hate shows – so what kind of world you been making lately?

And for this, you don’t need the Lord as Savior from the mess you create?

That is how I'd answer...
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Re: Your thoughts on this question?

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 6:13 am
by PaulSacramento
God told them to NOT eat of that tree, they disobeyed because they wanted to be like God.
Pride, THE sin of mankind.
Our belief that we can be like God, that we don't need God, that we can do it without God.
What God did can be viewed as punishment or it can be viewed as giving Adam and Eve ( humanity) what they wanted:
Control over God's creation.
They wanted it, we want it, and it is ours.

Re: Your thoughts on this question?

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:16 am
by jlay
Where does it say they didn't know right from wrong? They obviously knew right and wrong as it related to the Tree of good and evil, because God had revealed it to them. It doesn't mean they could comprehend the repercussions of having their eye's opened.

Obviously Even knew right from wrong regarding the tree.

Gen 3:2-3 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat 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 has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

God gave a command. They broke it.

My 10 year old asked me the other night what 'sexual' meant. She doesn't have knowledge of sexual immorality, at least not in the sense that we do. Yet I have given her rules regarding TV and the internet. That she is not permitted to go certain places. She doesn't understand what her eyes would be opened to. But she does understand the right and wrong of breaking this rule. And if she does, her eyes will be opened to something, and I can not undo this thing. She will essentially step out of her garden of innocence. Part of her would die.

Re: Your thoughts on this question?

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 11:42 am
by rockman0
jlay wrote:Where does it say they didn't know right from wrong? They obviously knew right and wrong as it related to the Tree of good and evil, because God had revealed it to them. It doesn't mean they could comprehend the repercussions of having their eye's opened.

Obviously Even knew right from wrong regarding the tree.

Gen 3:2-3 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat 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 has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

God gave a command. They broke it.

My 10 year old asked me the other night what 'sexual' meant. She doesn't have knowledge of sexual immorality, at least not in the sense that we do. Yet I have given her rules regarding TV and the internet. That she is not permitted to go certain places. She doesn't understand what her eyes would be opened to. But she does understand the right and wrong of breaking this rule. And if she does, her eyes will be opened to something, and I can not undo this thing. She will essentially step out of her garden of innocence. Part of her would die.
I love the example that you gave. I think that is exactly like what God was trying to do for Adam and Eve.