This Week's Readings Pissed Me Off
Everyone knows the story about Adam and Eve. Well, everyone who has ever picked up a Bible. I never really saw it as anything but a story until recently when I read the misalette for this Sunday's mass. Then I was just...pissed.
The misalette described Adam and Eve's sin as ungrateful disobediance. That is just so...wrong. I don't think it was ungrateful. I don't think it was even disobedience. If I didn't know any better, I would think it was a conspiracy to ensure that Adam and Eve would commit a sin.
God puts a tree of of good and evil within arm's reach of Adam and Eve. God puts a snake to tempt/trick Eve into taking it's fruit and eating it. He may as well have handed the fruit to them Himself. What kind of God would do something like that?
I'll tell you. It's not my God, that's for sure. I'd like to think that God is smarter than that or a bit more careful. Thank goodness this is just a story and not the Gospel truth. No wonder the Lord's Prayer ends with "Do not lead us into temptation."
I realize that there are so many questions I have about this story. Such as Eve being tempted/tricked by the serpent into eating the fruit and sharing it with Adam. It's almost like saying that women will lead me to sin and men are too stupid and ignorant to know any better.
The gospel talks about how Jesus went into the desert and fasted for 40 days. Some people might say that he did not eat anything or drink anything. If God were human, he would have died on the thrid day because no human can last without water for 3 days. And no human can survive without food for seven days.
But Jesus isn't human. In fact, our religion class called him God-man, as if he were a mix of both. That's fine; his divinity sustained him while his human side waivered. But if that were true, wouldn't the temptations be...meaningless?
I mean, if you could survive 40 days without eating (which is well past the human norm) then being tempted by the devil to turn bread to stone was pretty mute. And being asked to jump off a cliff? I may be divine but I'm not stupid, is how I would have responded. As for having the world bow down and worship? Who wants that responsibility? Can you imagine people whinning about this and that little thing? Asking for favors and exemptions? Besides, if he were divine, I think he would have known that the world would be worshipping him. After all, there is no other cause more...proclaimed than doing the work of God. Including wars and genocide.
And in case you think I'm being irrespectful to God, think again. I'm poking holes at the connotations, not God.
The misalette described Adam and Eve's sin as ungrateful disobediance. That is just so...wrong. I don't think it was ungrateful. I don't think it was even disobedience. If I didn't know any better, I would think it was a conspiracy to ensure that Adam and Eve would commit a sin.
God puts a tree of of good and evil within arm's reach of Adam and Eve. God puts a snake to tempt/trick Eve into taking it's fruit and eating it. He may as well have handed the fruit to them Himself. What kind of God would do something like that?
I'll tell you. It's not my God, that's for sure. I'd like to think that God is smarter than that or a bit more careful. Thank goodness this is just a story and not the Gospel truth. No wonder the Lord's Prayer ends with "Do not lead us into temptation."
I realize that there are so many questions I have about this story. Such as Eve being tempted/tricked by the serpent into eating the fruit and sharing it with Adam. It's almost like saying that women will lead me to sin and men are too stupid and ignorant to know any better.
The gospel talks about how Jesus went into the desert and fasted for 40 days. Some people might say that he did not eat anything or drink anything. If God were human, he would have died on the thrid day because no human can last without water for 3 days. And no human can survive without food for seven days.
But Jesus isn't human. In fact, our religion class called him God-man, as if he were a mix of both. That's fine; his divinity sustained him while his human side waivered. But if that were true, wouldn't the temptations be...meaningless?
I mean, if you could survive 40 days without eating (which is well past the human norm) then being tempted by the devil to turn bread to stone was pretty mute. And being asked to jump off a cliff? I may be divine but I'm not stupid, is how I would have responded. As for having the world bow down and worship? Who wants that responsibility? Can you imagine people whinning about this and that little thing? Asking for favors and exemptions? Besides, if he were divine, I think he would have known that the world would be worshipping him. After all, there is no other cause more...proclaimed than doing the work of God. Including wars and genocide.
And in case you think I'm being irrespectful to God, think again. I'm poking holes at the connotations, not God.
posted by Aldwin Christopher at 1:21 AM
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