I dont have a problem with so called "Goddess" worship. I just think its quaint. Almost all gods ( goddesses) can assume any form or likeness so Im not sure the gender distinctions really matter.

I wrote that in my own words. It wasnt a paste job.

It doesn't! Tribo can correct me if Im wrong but the intent behind this thread was to start a discussion or dialogue about the Garden of Eden specifically and that story about the "Tree of Knowledge" in Genesis. So we were all attempting to offer up some kind of explanation for that story. There were MANY opinions expressed and no one was more valid than another. I just threw out the Goddess theory because I thought it was a good one and different and no one else had brought it up yet. Doesn't make it factual. It doesn't make it the only way to reconcile Genesis.Its a theory as far as Im concerned. None of us were alive then to know what the exact motivation behind Moses or the author of that story was exactly. Its very cryptic.

If your refering to my posting about the "True History of religion" that wasnt a paste job. I wrote it myself. Thats why it was so frustrating to go chasing sources It was just a summary (in my own words) of what I was taught

Fine. I had to copy and paste my information because I didn't want to put it up there unless it was accurate and not based on my opinions or summaries. I haven't spent 20 years researching Goddesses throughout history and early Pagan religions so I cant very well just write all that myself otherwise people would question it and ask what my sources were.

I dont even know what to say I knew better.

You are always angry at me now ever since I told you to stop agreeing with my posts all the time. You just totally misinterpreted that comment and got all offended by it.

no Krimsa darling. You have this amazing ability to make me look and feel like a total dumbass and Im not used to that. Im much more accustomed to playing a fool on purpose. What can I say? Your probably smarter than me. I'll admit it. Thats the interesting thing about you.



And I dont get angry at you. I get frustrated at myself.

Alright. I dont want to make you feel like that. So lets just drop it. You are a good kid.

I guess the debate about the tree of knowledge would have to center around what religious interpretation you want to go by. The Jews,Christians, and Muslims all have differing interpreations of what the tree means.

Just keep doing what you do Krimsa.

You aren't kidding. Just do a search online for "tree of knowledge" Since its all broken down into symbolism there is page after page written about it and its just everyone and their mother has a theory.

It's why having a discussion about something as generic as the tree of knowledge is hard, because each religion has a different "interpretation" of what the words "mean".
It would be easier if there was only one possible translation of the original text also. Unfortunately most of it is open to translational errors also.

wel thats true BB, can you give the other two versions for comparisons?

I'm posting tonight not researching, Sorry. Goggle tree of knowledge and you shall be enlightened.

well that's true also BB, but enough ancient copies of the Hebrew have survived to make it difficult to object to anything worth while - i prefer the LXX myself [septuigent] rather than modern text, i feel it gives a more accurate look at what happened, but the Muslim creation story I'm not familiar with so if you have that it would be a good comparison. i cant divide the c"c and J's opinion of the matter here they are to much alike - the fine points can be debated but not the whole. so if you have that creation story for comparison that would be great. although i know it is written much later than the Aramaic text or masoretic text or Greek it would be interesting to see and compare.

The first account we have of the devil is found in that purely scientific book called Genesis, and is as follows: "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the Lord God said Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life: and eat, and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life."

According to this account the promise of the devil was fulfilled to the very letter, Adam and Eve did not die, and they did become as gods, knowing good and evil.

http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/gods.html

The account shows, however, that the gods dreaded education and knowledge then just as they do now. The church still faithfully guards the dangerous tree of knowledge, and has exerted in all ages her utmost power to keep mankind from eating the fruit thereof. The priests have never ceased repeating the old falsehood and the old threat: "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." From every pulpit comes the same cry, born of the same fear: "Lest they eat and become as gods, knowing good and evil." For this reason, religion hates science, faith detests reason, theology is the sworn enemy of philosophy, and the church with its flaming sword still guards the hated tree, and like its supposed founder, curses to the lowest depths the brave thinkers who eat and become as gods.

If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all, to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper in human ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the author of modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and of civilization.

http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/gods.html

Whats the story behind that medical symbol? You know the one that has the two snakes kind of coiled up around the pole? Its the symbol of medicine and its always on their diplomas and stuff? Does that have any biblical reference? What is that thing called? Anyone know?

I'll look that up but I think its a symbol of a Greco-Roman deity. Aescupalius, I think.(May be spelled differently). Or maybe Hermes.