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Paul,<br><br>I'm not a Bible scholar, Old Testament or otherwise, but the imperative to not eat of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" is thought by some to be not a literal "bite here and suddenly you'll see it all"-type of thing, but rather a tangible, historical action of volitional will that violated God's command and that in some way would have given Adam and Eve exposure to evil -- sin, violence, oppression, death, sickness, horrors of all kind -- that only an omniscient being should have. The root of the defiance was humankind's desire to appropriate that which is only God's. What, exactly, that is is not clear; what is clear is that it is symbolized by the omniscience illustrated by the words "knowledge of good and evil." <br><br>Hope that helps. I know we disagree on a lot of things, but I always have appreciated the irenic tone of your questions and statements, and I hope you feel the same.<br><br>keely<br><br><br><br>"Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For of all slaveholders whom whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders re the worst. I have ever found the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others. It was my unhappy lot not only to belong to a religious slaveholder, but to live in a community of such religionists." Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, feminist, and former slave<br><br><br><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br><br><br>> Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:23:00 -0700<br>> From: godshatter@yahoo.com<br>> To: heirdoug@netscape.net<br>> CC: kjajmix1@msn.com; thansen@moscow.com; vision2020@moscow.com; vpschwaller@gmail.com; joekc@adelphia.net; idahotom@hotmail.com; tomh@uidaho.edu<br>> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Say What?<br>> <br>> heirdoug@netscape.net wrote:<br>> > Let me first address your "imperative of blessing".<br>> ><br>> > Keely, When God told Adam and Eve to eat of every tree in the garden <br>> > but not to eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was this an <br>> > imperative of blessing or a command to follow?<br>> > <br>> <br>> I know I'm stepping on your conversation, but this reminded me of <br>> something. <br>> <br>> When a powerful entity demands that you should, in essence, avoid <br>> learning how to distinguish evil from good shouldn't you be frightened <br>> and run away screaming? What possible motive could this being have for <br>> not wanting you to know evil from good? How could you possibly live a <br>> life of good if you never learned the difference? It would be like <br>> living a life avoiding the color yellow when you could only distinguish <br>> shades of gray. How could you even know that disobeying a command from <br>> this being fell into the "evil" category? From the perspective of a few <br>> thousand years later I'm still not convinced of that. You could only <br>> pull this one over on a couple of people that didn't know the difference.<br>> <br>> It all sounds horribly suspicious to me. I understand that the gnostics <br>> believed that the god of the Old Testament was evil. I'm beginning to <br>> wonder if they were right.<br>> <br>> Paul<br><br /><hr />Find a local pizza place, movie theater, and more….then map the best route! <a href='http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&ss=yp.bars~yp.pizza~yp.movie%20theater&cp=42.358996~-71.056691&style=r&lvl=13&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=950607&encType=1&FORM=MGAC01' target='_new'>Find it!</a></body>
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