Quote Ferocious Aardvark="Ferocious Aardvark"
No, they didn't. They were seemingly two brand new model creatures, who had the capacity to do no such thing. Their boss (god) was the only person with the capacity to bring anything into the world.'"
God gave mankind free will. Adam and Eve chose to ignore the only commandment they were given. They had everything they could ever have wanted, but yet they wanted more - they wanted to be God. Satan tempted them into doing the one thing God had forbidden.
Adam and Eve falling into sin does not mean that God is the author of sin, nor that he tempted Adam and Eve to sin. The fall serves the purpose of God’s sovereign plan for creation and mankind. This must be the case, or else the fall of mankind would never have happened.
Quote Ferocious AardvarkSecond, you breathtakingly assume the perfect reasonableness of condemning untold billions of future people to some of the most grim and most evil things imaginable, because your god's prototype ate a fscking apple. I accept, though find it amazing and pathetic in equal measure, that you do not see any degree of overkill in that.'"
Eating an apple from the tree of knowledge was the original sin - we have since learned a plethora of new ways to break the commandments given to us from God. Sin continues to thrive and thus disease and death thrives.
Quote Ferocious AardvarkThird, as you have previously explained, when god created the prototypes, he already knew what they would do, and so what he would do in retaliation, to the billions who had nothing whatsoever to do with the original "offence". So he nevertheless made them that way, and thus by doing so HE deliberately inflicted these things, not they.'"
God did not make us "this way". We used our own free will chose to rebel against him. God, being all powerful and all knowing, knew that this would happen, but it is part of his soveriegn plan.
Quote Ferocious AardvarkI wondered how long it would be before the usual vicars' cop-out was trundled out - "It may seem inexplicable to you, my dear, but god works in ways you cannot understand, ergo he must have a good reason for X and Y and Z, because, why, er, because well, he just does."'"
This is where faith comes in.
Quote Ferocious AardvarkWhat is good about what he did to all mankind as a result of some guy biting into an apple? Name one thing.'"
He gave us his son, so that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
Quote Ferocious AardvarkNo, it is the archetypal fair question. What could be wrong about it? And surely, as Captain, at least the Pope should be told, so he could explain it to his team?'"
Captain? Please. The Pope is a fallible human just as much as you and I.
Quote Ferocious AardvarkNo. We really, really don't. We simply have to make a judgment on what such a god must be like, if he existed, based on the evidence of what we see and what we find.'"
The only evidence we should look to is God's word - both flesh and written. To do otherwise is to break the First Commandment.
Quote Ferocious AardvarkHow come? What sin did Gary Barlow's baby commit that caused its sickness and death? or did it die because of the apple? If so, can you explain the procedure for baby apple-related death sentence because clearly most babies aren't picked, and I don't get it.'"
Good question.
In Psalm 51:5, David wrote, “[iSurely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me[/i.”
David recognized that even at conception, he was a sinner. The very sad fact that infants like Gary Barlow's daughter sometimes die demonstrates that even infants are impacted by Adam’s sin, since physical and spiritual death were the results of Adam's original sin.
Quote Ferocious AardvarkWhat rot. As an omnipotent being, why not just wave a finger and correct the original design fault? If this was true, how did and how does it cure any stillborn baby?'"
God did reconcile with us through his son Jesus Christ. He is the only way we can be at one with God once again (John 14:6).