Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!gatech!ukma!seismo!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: awmurray@eos.ncsu.edu (ALAN WAYNE MURRAY) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: A Skeptic's Question... Message-ID: Date: 28 Feb 91 09:14:40 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: North Carolina State University Lines: 64 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I've always wanted to ask a bunch of Christians this question (among others): A couple of days ago, I picked up a flyer that had something to do with why all Mormons are going to hell. I usually don't read Christian drivel but I did this time out of curiosity and because my parents are Mormon. I will never fail to be amazed at the utter "everyone else bashing" that goes on between all of these god-fearing religions. Yea, you all worship the same god but at the same time, all of YOU are right and all of THEM are wrong (this goes for Mormans and Christians). This is absolutely amazing to me. Anyway, this flyer pointed out several contradictions and illogical situations that occur in the Book of Mormon. One of the arguments against Mormonism was that if Joseph Smith (without God's aid) had written the Book of Mormon, then certainly there must be several fundamental errors that would not appear had he been given divine guidance. Of course, it didn't point out the contradictions in THE Bible. I found several of the same type of errors in Genesis alone. Here's one: * Adam "lays" w/ Eve (can't even say 'has sex' guys???) and Cain and Abel are born. Cain kills Abel. Then Cain gets marked (some argue 'blackened'). Up to here, it's fine (if unbelievable). Now, however, Cain runs out and gets married. OK, here's my question: Where did this 'extra' body come from??? There are 3 (count 'em) people on the face of this planet yet Cain can run off and get married! And even if he DID get married to some one, would that not be his SISTER?? (But, it couldn't be his sister, because only Cain and Abel were born...) Literally of the 3 people on the planet, only ONE is female. I've even been told by some Christians around here that "maybe he married his mother...". Yea, THAT'S real good. So Are we all products of incest? or Do we simply not exist? :-) Again, there are a myriad of these type things, but I'd especially be interested in the answer to this question. ---Alan "Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do." St. John 8:44 [While my own view is that in the early parts of Gen. we are dealing primarily with legend (and that the anti-Mormon folks you saw are extremists), in fairness I should point out that the Bible does not necessarily list every person born. Given that the first few generations of people are reported as living for very long periods of time, there is plenty of time for several generations of other people to be born, and there's no particular reason to think that the Bible would have listed them all. That's if you want a literal explanation. If you're interested in such things, take a look in any Christian bookstore. You'll find that this sort of issues are not unknown to Christians. There are books full of problem passages and proposed resolutions. I doubt that you'll find the proposed resolutions convincing, but it may at least persuade you that you're not going to come up with some "contradiction" that is suddenly going to make all the fundamentalists abandon their position in dismay. Maybe I've been editing this group too long -- when I see postings like this my reaction tends to be "oh no, not again..." --clh]