Were the humans in Garden of Eden "human" or did they become human after the fruit-incident?

[DetlefK]

The Bible has an astonishing stance on the human mind, especially considering the contemporary philosophies.

1.
God creates the angels and uses them as messengers (that's what the word "angel" means) to spread his will and message on Earth. Lucifer resists. He does not want to serve God. He wants something different. This is supposed to be evil.

2.
God creates humans and has them live in the Garden of Eden. They live a life free of pain, free of needs, free of knowledge, free of inspiration, free of deeper desire. A mindless consumer. And this is supposed to be the ideal state.

3.
God ruins Iob's life to prove a point. Does Iob argue that "I should accept what God is doing to me, because he surely has a good reason?"
No.
Instead, he simply praises the Lord and moves on with his life.

4.
Lucifer debates Jesus Christ. (Or as the Bible describes it: Tries to tempt him.)
- "Do a miracle."
- "Why? It wouldn't make a difference"
- "Prove God's power by him doing something truly extraordinary."
- "You are not allowed to do that."
- "Join me, and I will give you power over Earth."
- "Leave me alone."
Not once does Jesus Christ stand up to Lucifer. Lucifer challenges him to defend God... and Jesus backs out. THRICE. And the Bible sells us that Jesus reciting preapproved talking-points in the face of critical questions counts as a victory.

What is the Bible's opinion on intelligence, on art, on critical thinking, on exploring?

In these four passages, the Bible shows what the ideal way of thinking, the ideal state of mind is: Blind acceptance. Don't even think about what's happening. Just accept it, do as you are told and move on.



This raises an important question: Adam was human in body, but was he human in mind?

Or: Were Adam and Eve originally "real humans" and our ability to think has corrupted us and removed us from the ideal state the Bible envisioned?

The Bible's stance of denouncing independent thinking is especially interesting when comparing it with other contemporary religions:
* The persian philosopher Zoroaster invented the philosophy that the humans have to think for themselves and have to decide for themselves whether they want to be good or evil.
* The Ancient Egyptians had Thoth, the patron-god of wisdom and of writing.
* The highest god in the ancient german pantheon was Odin, patron-god of kings, of wisdom, of language and of runes.
* The original seven chinese kingdoms had a flurry of philosophers, of which only Confucius' writings survived the book-burning campaign of the newly formed chinese empire.





Why does the Bible denounce critical thinking, especially when so many other contemporary religions embrace it?

[3Hotdogs]

1. --- because the end result of critical thinking is ------- wait for it ---------------------------

less money in the till.

[songbookz]

2. The Creation Stories

The Creation Stories in the Tanakh are myths concerning humanity's achieving self-awareness, especially, the awareness of our own mortality. The distrust of knowledge (education) is a Conservative trait not limited to religions. Liberal religions and governments are keen to encourage education.

[Act_of_Reparation]

3. If that is true...

...then:

1) These stories started off as metaphor; then

2) Everyone forgot they were metaphor and started interpreting them as literal accounts of the creation of the universe; then

3) Darwin; then

4) Everyone totes coincidentally remembered these stories were metaphors all along, never intended to be taken literally cuz only literalists do that shit amirite lulz.

[Permanut]

4. Critical thinking cannot be allowed in a cult. n/t