quote:
Originally posted by doctrbill:
you won't[/i] and he didn't.
The serpent predicted that humans would become "like gods" which they did, by the gods' own admission - "the man has become like one of us".
Thus, the serpent was truthful and the gods were not.
The question, as I see it, is not so much, "Does the Bible mean what it says?" but rather - "Why do gods lie?"
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DoctrBill,
If this is to be your question, then it must follow that you accept the story as literalistic, historical fact. Otherwise, reliance on the report in Genesis to speak to us about the nature and characteristics of God (or, as you put it, "gods")is faulty.
My suggestion is that these stories are not to be taken literalisticly at all. Rather they are in keeping with many cosmological myths, in that area and elsewhere. They attempt to explain the existance of good and evil, man's relationship to man, and our relationship to God, as best we may understand and express it.
My take on all this does not really allow for a historical acceptance of these passages, rather a spiritual one. When we discuss them as telling us more about God than ourselves, the conversation spirals into absurd circular logic that fails too easily. There are too many obvious problems with the text as history, internal contradiction, and observable fact, i.e. YEC, ID as typically accepted, "chosen people," etc.
Ultimately, the definitions we use will fail us, too. Among Muslims there is the arguement that Christianity is not monotheistic, defining God-Father, Son & Holy Spirit as three seperately worshipped dieties. Most Christians would disagree, of course, as would I.
What is a "god" to you? Do you rely on the text as historically meaningful outside a cultural context? Does the passage tell you more about how you see "god(s)" than about yourself/us? These are the things which may define, in part, this discussion.
Have fun,
-Shiloh
™ Version 4.2