Genesis 1
Wow. I didn't expect anything from Genesis 1. I've read it a hundred times (no hyperbole there) and this time it struck me differently. Its a nice little story, in context. Imagine being a primitive culture and telling this story to your child as a way to understand the world around them. Its not a scary Grimms story or a funny Suess story, but its nice.
To me it is very fun to try to understand the hows of things. To the dismay of mother, in March or April, I would take those Christmas presents from December and tear them apart. To her, I was destroying the gift she scrimped and saved to buy for me. To me, I was getting to the best part of the gift. Sometimes I could get the item back together. Sometimes I would make little changes. Often, it would end up in a collection of parts that one day I would use for something else.
I like discovering and I like the attempted explanation in Genesis 1. What saddens me is many of us grow up being told that the Bible must be taken literally and God is the answer to the unknown. Sadly, that often kills further discovery of the unknown. Neil deGrasse Tyson does a brilliant talk on this. But right now, I have a serious man crush on him, so I think everything he does is brilliant.
To me it is very fun to try to understand the hows of things. To the dismay of mother, in March or April, I would take those Christmas presents from December and tear them apart. To her, I was destroying the gift she scrimped and saved to buy for me. To me, I was getting to the best part of the gift. Sometimes I could get the item back together. Sometimes I would make little changes. Often, it would end up in a collection of parts that one day I would use for something else.
I like discovering and I like the attempted explanation in Genesis 1. What saddens me is many of us grow up being told that the Bible must be taken literally and God is the answer to the unknown. Sadly, that often kills further discovery of the unknown. Neil deGrasse Tyson does a brilliant talk on this. But right now, I have a serious man crush on him, so I think everything he does is brilliant.
Genesis 2 & 3
"Good feeling's gone." God puts a tree of knowledge of good and evil and doesn't want man to partake in it? Knowledge of right and wrong results in death? This really flies in the face of everything that is good and decent. It also refutes a very typical argument I hear from theists. "Without God, how do you know what is moral?" Well, apparently, the question should be "Without a Tree, how do you know what is moral?"
So you have God who creates man but then turns around and want to make sure that man doesn't have a chance to have the same knowledge that he does. How screwed up is that? My youngest daughter at 3 has more knowledge than I did when I was 5. I don't resent that or fear that. I LOVE the idea. I think its great that kids are smarter today than when I was a kid. I love the fact there is more information and more accessible than ever before. Why is God so uptight about it?
Its also interesting, I was under the impression it was Satan that deceived Eve, but nothing in the story even implies that. Its a serpent. A talking serpent. But I've read that some traditions say that all animals talked before the fall. Some even more bizarre is that the first piece of knowledge about right and wrong is being naked? Really? This was the most glaring thing that was wrong?
So you have God who creates man but then turns around and want to make sure that man doesn't have a chance to have the same knowledge that he does. How screwed up is that? My youngest daughter at 3 has more knowledge than I did when I was 5. I don't resent that or fear that. I LOVE the idea. I think its great that kids are smarter today than when I was a kid. I love the fact there is more information and more accessible than ever before. Why is God so uptight about it?
Its also interesting, I was under the impression it was Satan that deceived Eve, but nothing in the story even implies that. Its a serpent. A talking serpent. But I've read that some traditions say that all animals talked before the fall. Some even more bizarre is that the first piece of knowledge about right and wrong is being naked? Really? This was the most glaring thing that was wrong?
I find God's reaction a bit over the top. It really makes you wonder, why is a being who is clever and creative enough to create an entire universe, complete with a planet with plants and animals so insecure the can't deal with people recognizing their own nakedness? The nice story in Genesis 1 has turned terribly ugly.
Genesis 4
You have two kids, one likes to play in outside, one likes to paint pictures. The child that likes to play outside, makes a mud pie for you and says, "Look, I made this pie for you." At the same time, your other child is drawing smiley faces and scribbles on a piece of paper. "I made this for you too!" So you look at the child that made the painting and say, "That is a stupid drawing, that face doesn't even look real. Why can't you be more like your brother, he gets outside and get's his hands dirty. Did you see what he made? Did you?" I guess its okay to be an asshole when you are God. Too bad he couldn't see that its ok to be a farmer.
Genesis 6-9
There are so many things wrong with this story, its hard not to just pick everything apart.
I'm wondering, how in the world did they keep a year food supply for all of those animals? What did they do with the waste from said animals? It would seems from Genesis 8:6, they were stuck in this water tight structure for almost a year before Noah even opened the windows (can you imagine the smell?). Although I'm not too sure how they were able to see the mountain tops without the window open. Maybe they had invented glass already.
I'm wondering, how in the world did they keep a year food supply for all of those animals? What did they do with the waste from said animals? It would seems from Genesis 8:6, they were stuck in this water tight structure for almost a year before Noah even opened the windows (can you imagine the smell?). Although I'm not too sure how they were able to see the mountain tops without the window open. Maybe they had invented glass already.
Oh and how did animals get to Australia after the flood? Actually how did they get to the ark before the flood?
The violence of this story is unbelievable. The whole story is God committing genocide. Although, you do have to feel bad for a god who has such a bad memory that he has to create a rainbow to remember his promise to never destroy all life with a flood. Whew! I feel better already. Genesis 9:6 is God endorsed barbaric brutality. Genesis 9:25 is the first I've seen of grouping people into classes and chapter 10 just gets into the tribalism even more.
The violence of this story is unbelievable. The whole story is God committing genocide. Although, you do have to feel bad for a god who has such a bad memory that he has to create a rainbow to remember his promise to never destroy all life with a flood. Whew! I feel better already. Genesis 9:6 is God endorsed barbaric brutality. Genesis 9:25 is the first I've seen of grouping people into classes and chapter 10 just gets into the tribalism even more.
Overall, this is not a very good story.
Genesis 11
Once again, Yahweh is feeling insecure about people maybe knowing as much as him. But hey, this chapter introduces Abraham. This will be fun, but in the next post.
Hints of Polytheism:
I'm fascinated by the little indications of polytheism scattered throughout the supposed monotheistic Bible.
Names of God
Elohim
Yahweh Elohim
Yahweh
References
Genesis 1:26 "Let us make man in our image"Genesis 6:2 "sons of God" (son of Elohim)
Genesis 10:7 "Come, let us go down"
You're really doing it!!
ReplyDelete