Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: lindborg@deer.cs.washington.edu (Jeff Lindborg) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Is Original Sin a sin? Message-ID: Date: 28 Apr 91 23:26:11 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Washington Computer Science Lines: 55 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article brendan@cs.uq.oz.au (Brendan Mahony) writes: >The Garden of Eden story tells us that God created humanity in His own image >to live within His love and wisdom. However humanity chose instead to >seek its own wisdom, to decide its own way, morality, ethics etc. >Because God loves us He did not destroy us for our arrogance, instead He >set us apart for His wisdom so that we might pursue our own way. For those who believe in a hell (not the "kinder gentler" hell being touted these days, but the good old fire and brim-stone stuff of my childhood) it would seem to be a much nicer fate to be merely destroyed as opposed to suffering for eternity. It seems ironic that you would say that your god was thinking in a loving way when he let the human race continue. It seems to me it would have been a better option to just not let Adam and Eve procreate and the sin and pain would have stopped there. Maybe start over again with a "new and improved" human model. Later he tries (and fails, again) to do just this with the flood, murdering thousands of people (according to the bible, anyway). Something tells me the product testing division in heaven was not doing its job when humans rolled off the line... > Since >we are made in God's image the only way to perfection lies within God's >wisdom, which is removed from our worldly existence. So we're sort of left on our own to figure this stuff out. And if we don't do it right (ie worship the wrong god(s)/universal powers, none at all) we "loose" and go to hell. Don't sit there and tell me that anything related to religion or Christianity is clear to those who will look... the very existence of this board goes to disprove that. Practicing Christians can't even agree on large numbers of issues related to the Bible and the practice of their religion. If God were truly just and wise he would have been a little clearer and MUCH more straight forward about such weighty matters. Why all the mystery and such? What is there to hide? Why not inspire a bible that is clear for everyone to understand? Surely the creator of the human race could have pulled it off... or at least done a little better job than what we have available. >It only through Faith in Christ that we may return to the >state of perfection which is God's will for each of us. If this is His true concern, why did he abandon Adam and Eve in the first place? One mistake and you're screwed? What's this? Why wait so long to send the redeemer? Why wait so long to send him back the second (supposedly) time? Every year that goes by millions of human toys are being sent to hell... if this pains him so much why not put a stop to it? Too many questions, not enough answers for this reporter... Jeff Lindborg