Why were Adam and Eve cast out of Eden?

It wasn’t a comment on this issue specifically. It just seems to be a pattern with you. You understand a religious claim and then question whether it really is true. You don’t have a solid counter-argument so you move on to another religious claim. When you understand that one, you question whether it could really be true. And so on, until you run out of excuses.

The actions of the character “God” in Genesis 2/3 are not those of someone who is omnipotent omnibenevolent. I do not doubt that Christians are able to overlook this issue.

Yes. That has been the point all along: That the Christian interpretation is not supported by the text alone.

Of course, that is certainly the case. “Adam” may well have been based on some real person. It would be similar to how most historians believe that Gilgamesh really existed, but don’t believe he really had a best friend who was a giant furry monster.

The Genesis story is almost entirely made up of the equivalent of giant furry monsters and the like…

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I don’t see how the fact that something has not been demonstrated to be true is an “excuse” to not believe it is true. To me, it seems like a good reason to not believe it is true.

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Christian interpretation is never by text alone. If a reader is not guided by the Holy Spirit, there is no understanding. Only unbelievers try to interpret by text alone, and fail. Christians rely on the Spirit of Truth for appropriate interpretation. (well, at least I do.) That said, the Word is living and changes as we change…much like science. There will never be a time when someone is accurate in saying, “that’s what it means, that’s the only meaning, that’s the only truth, there is no other way to look at it.”

John 16:13 - However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

John 14:16-17 - 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another [a]Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

1 John 4:6 - We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

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I understand that.

I will again try to clarify: My intent here is to discuss how this story would be interpreted by someone who is not committed to Christianity being true, and is just objectively interpreting the text as it stands.

How a committed Christian who believes the “Holy Spirit” is guiding him in understanding the story would interpret it is of no relevance.

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9 posts were split to a new topic: The Trinity and the Old Testament