Here’s how fucked up the story of Adam & Eve is, even before the incest.
Imagine you were literally just created a short time ago - a season, a year, whatever - and you live in a literally perfect realm, and have no concept of deceit. Then a snake has a conversation with you. Sure, why not? God created everything - he directly told you so. So when the snake says “it’s all good, eat away,” you don’t even have a concept for doubting that he’s legit and honest. So you eat the fruit and suddenly, BAM, God shows up all pissed off. He punishes you for not understanding that he didn’t actually send a messenger. With banishment, pain, and death.
This is the equivalent of your 3 year old knocking over their bowl of Cheerios after you told them not to and so you drive them out to the woods and leave them there.
“I always thought that about the Garden of Eden story,” said Ford.
“Eh?”
“Garden of Eden. Tree. Apple. That bit, remember?”
“Yes of course I do.”
“Your God person puts an apple tree in the middle of a garden and says do what you like guys, oh, but don’t eat the apple. Surprise surprise, they eat it and he leaps out from behind a bush shouting ‘Gotcha’. It wouldn’t have made any difference if they hadn’t eaten it.”
“Why not?”
“Because if you’re dealing with somebody who has the sort of mentality which likes leaving hats on the pavement with bricks under them you know perfectly well they won’t give up. They’ll get you in the end.”
Don’t forget that god is supposedly all knowing and all seeing. So he knew his was going to happen anyway, watched it happen, and then swooped in to punish them knowing full well it was his fault and could have intervened at any point.
Unless of course, Satan is more powerful than god?
None of it’s that fucked up if you interpret it as a creation story that’s about why things are the way they are rather than something that literally happened.
Creation stories do tend to involve incest because there weren’t many folks around. And you’re not meant to worry about understanding of deceit because it’s explaining why life isn’t perfect and served that function perfectly well.
Of course, this still presents a problem for literal believers. But they’re a minority (and have been for hundreds of years).
Here’s how fucked up the story of Adam & Eve is, even before the incest.
Imagine you were literally just created a short time ago - a season, a year, whatever - and you live in a literally perfect realm, and have no concept of deceit. Then a snake has a conversation with you. Sure, why not? God created everything - he directly told you so. So when the snake says “it’s all good, eat away,” you don’t even have a concept for doubting that he’s legit and honest. So you eat the fruit and suddenly, BAM, God shows up all pissed off. He punishes you for not understanding that he didn’t actually send a messenger. With banishment, pain, and death.
This is the equivalent of your 3 year old knocking over their bowl of Cheerios after you told them not to and so you drive them out to the woods and leave them there.
Don’t forget that god is supposedly all knowing and all seeing. So he knew his was going to happen anyway, watched it happen, and then swooped in to punish them knowing full well it was his fault and could have intervened at any point.
Unless of course, Satan is more powerful than god?
It’s the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. How are you supposed to know the Lord is good if you don’t know what good is?
Only if you left their bowl balanced on the tip of a pencil to begin with.
Whole thing was a setup.
None of it’s that fucked up if you interpret it as a creation story that’s about why things are the way they are rather than something that literally happened.
Creation stories do tend to involve incest because there weren’t many folks around. And you’re not meant to worry about understanding of deceit because it’s explaining why life isn’t perfect and served that function perfectly well.
Of course, this still presents a problem for literal believers. But they’re a minority (and have been for hundreds of years).
It shows a being that believers say is the ultimate moral authority, God, behaving in a morally abhorrent way.