Overwhelming Doubt
Posted: Thursday, December 23, 2010
by Jennifer Cuddy
I haven’t written an article for a while, mainly because I’ve been too busy trying to determine what exactly is my stand on religion, meaning very specifically the Judeo Christian God and the biblical accounts of the said “God”. My acceptance of the evidence for Evolution held me in suspense for quite a while, but even that I had managed to squeeze in to my non literal interpretation of the Bible. But then there is still that pesky recall of the numerous hominids that clearly existed, lived and died, before the onset of any Homo Sapiens called “Adam and Eve.” This fact alone, proves that there was indeed death before the “fall of man”, which claims “death” to be the ultimate punishment for their rather innocent crime of curiousity and the very natural consequences of temptation, to which all humans “ made in the image of God ” encompass. But this only leads me into the next conundrum of why did God even create such a tree, or even the snake for that matter? Where did Cain’s wife come from? Why are the first humans neatly born upon the advent of agriculture, etc..?
Moving on to the New Testament certainly does not repudiate my doubts. Firstly, there are two conflicting genealogies regarding the birth of Jesus, both of which claim to be reiterating the line of Joseph. But Joseph was not even the real father of Jesus, making the claim of a royal blood line to be quite false. And why is it that Mary is later to become so seemingly oblivious to the fact of her miraculous pregnancy and further foreknowledge that her son was to be the long awaited Messiah? Did she actually forget? Both she and Jesus's brothers question the sanity of Jesus in one scene, and in another Mary seems to be clueless as to what Jesus could possibly be doing speaking with the Elders in the Temple.
Jesus himself contradicts the commandments that the Jewish people were dutifully following that were allegedly given to them by Moses - however horrid these commandments were, such as stoning to death anyone who breaks the Sabbath - by breaking the tedious “rules” himself, and condemning those who obey them. And he expects them to believe that he is from the very God who gave them these commandments? What does he expect? Why would he not give the inquisitors a sign? He was making one hell of a claim, was he not? Of course the Jews would proceed to test him, and rightly so they did.
Lastly, why was Judas the bad guy, condemned to hell for all eternity, for simply doing the very act that was absolutely necessary for Jesus to have died for the sins of mankind? It is far more likely - and more sensible - that the claims of the Gnostics saying that Jesus asked Judas to betray him are correct. And why is there absolutely zero historical record of there being any horrendous earthquake upon Christ’s afternoon death, and no record of any such events that were said to have occurred: such as the midday sun turning to darkness, or the temple curtain splitting in half, or of the resurrection of various long deceased prophets arising and appearing to numerous people in Jerusalem on that day? Surely, somebody would have remembered that! Don’t you think?
During the Golden age of such Jewish religious leaders as Hillel and Shammai, I would expect to have heard atleast one very loud "Woops". Or is it just me?
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)I don't think there's anything wrong with raising questions, Jennifer. I've struggled with my own doubts over the years, and I've learned that the only way to fully resolve ones doubts is to fully explore them.
Thanks Bruce. Yeah, we kind of have to don't we? The Bible begs for it.
Shalom Jennifer,
These are all good questions.
There are answers to these questions and they are not the pat answers given by the Church.
By taking a Judaic approach we can answer even the N.T. problems you've pointed out.
Because of time I'll answer the first question and then, as time allows, I'll answer the following questions.
First concerning any hominidae. There's not any conclusive proof that humans came from monkeys. It's all theory. I've seen their so called evidence and it really takes more faith to believe in their theories then it does to believe in a Creator. If there were monkeys who evolved into people, then why aren't there any monkeys in a half way state right now? The few skulls that have been produced by those who believe in evolution, they are easily explained by various reasons. For example, there may have been types of monkeys then who had a different kind of skull then the monkeys today have. We can see quite a difference between our present day lions and the saber tooth tiger of long ago. There were also various tribes of people back then who participated in incest, this also causes deformations in people's bone and even skull structures. Even by the Biblical account, people looked vastly different back then then they do now. There were extremely large people for example who we would call giants by today's standards. We also have to take into account the newly created genes of those people and how they reacted to their environment etc.
So really, I'd say their evidence is weak and they could say thew same about our evidence as well, but the fact remains, they don't have conclusive proof.
That being said, we all have to make a choice concerning what we're going to believe. No matter which side one determines to go with, it will require faith on their part. I openly call belief in the Bible a matter of "faith". The other side should be so honest.
So now that we have established that belief in the Bible requires a certain amount of faith, what is the next step? To me, the next step is to determine if ALL of the Bible should be believed or if just some of it should be believed. The O.T or the N.T. or both? See, I don't believe that all the books should be Canon so my belief will be different then someone who believes all of it is Holy Writ.
That's not the only problem. We then have translational errors and even scribal errors so now we must determine what those consists of.
I understand it's much easier for Christians to say it's all Holy Writ and then stick with that. But unfortunately there's too much evidence that points elsewhere.
So with that in mind, lets answer the next question.
You are correct, there was indeed death in the universe before Adam and Eve were ever created. Christians deny this but the Bible plainly shows that Lucifer had already sinned before there ever was a human being. Sin equals death and thus death had entered the universe and all of creation felt it's ramifications.
The crime of Adam and Eve does sound at first reading as if it was a simple mistake. It was just a piece of fruit right? If I told someone that they could eat anything they wanted but that they were forbidden to eat of this one particular tree.... well guess which one the people would eat from? They'd eat from the forbidden one, it's human nature and curiosity is a powerful force. From the account given in Gen. 1 it almost sounds as if Adam and Eve were set up from the get go!
But that's at first reading. If we delve a little deeper and we start to contemplate that Adam and Eve had full use of their brains (no death had been introduced to them) and if we dwell on the fact that they had a very intimate walk with G-d in such a way that we can not even imagine with our finite minds today, then we would just begin to understand that they really should've known better. We can't try to understand Adam and Eve from our understanding of humanity today. It's like me trying to explain to you the culture of the tribesmen in India. There are some things that you wouldn't understand unless you lived there even though these are people who live in this very same age as we do. I dont know if that's the best example, but perhaps you can see what I mean. In my opinion, they weren't even curious at all, it was a power grab. They wanted to be able to understand good and evil as G-d understood it and thus level the playing field. Not so much like Lucifer himself at the pinnacle of his downfall. The proof here is that Adam and Eve then tried to hide from G-d. They knew they had done something wrong. If it was simple curiosity, then why hide? They knew G-d very well, better then anyone has ever known G-d since. Surely He would understand a simple mistake. But we don't see that reaction and that tells me volumes.
Ok that's all for now.
Great article, ttys,
Rabbi Stanleycorrection.. Not so "unlike" Lucifer himselfYes, but didn't they hide because they were naked? And is nudity some kind of evil? Why can't they be innocent, and nude?
I think this is very interesting, Rabbi Stanely, what you said here:
But that's at first reading. If we delve a little deeper and we start to contemplate that Adam and Eve had full use of their brains (no death had been introduced to them) and if we dwell on the fact that they had a very intimate walk with G-d in such a way that we can not even imagine with our finite minds today, then we would just begin to understand that they really should've known better. We can't try to understand Adam and Eve from our understanding of humanity today. It's like me trying to explain to you the culture of the tribesmen in India. There are some things that you wouldn't understand unless you lived there even though these are people who live in this very same age as we do. I dont know if that's the best example, but perhaps you can see what I mean. In my opinion, they weren't even curious at all, it was a power grab. They wanted to be able to understand good and evil as G-d understood it and thus level the playing field. Not so much like Lucifer himself at the pinnacle of his downfall. The proof here is that Adam and Eve then tried to hide from G-d. They knew they had done something wrong. If it was simple curiosity, then why hide? They knew G-d very well, better then anyone has ever known G-d since. Surely He would understand a simple mistake. But we don't see that reaction and that tells me volumes.
It's not just you! These are the questions that a person truly striving for independence of mind asks. I think you did a great job of articulating them and they make absolute sense to me. I had the same kind of questions myself, and never received an adequate answer.Me niether, Jennifer. Me neither.
Hi Jennifer,
The owner of this site has discontinued my account lol. What a coward. He allowed every Muslim under the son to attack me and my articles but if I even answered back at all he censored me. They used foul language, cuss words, you name it, but if I retorted in any way at all, he'd censor me. There is no free exchange of ideas on this site, it is completely biased. It seems he's also taken down all of my articles. Amazing how there were thousands of thousands of hits on these articles as well as many who opted to follow me. Seems the owner doesn't care about their voices either. Anyway, just thought I'd pass the news along. Rabbi Stanley
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