- Dec 2, 2014
- 5,976
- 2,599
- 28
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Christian
- Marital Status
- Single
- Politics
- US-Others
i feel like lately I'm finding out that a lot of things about the Bible are too naturalistic, too non-divine and non-spirtual. That bothers me. If the Bible is supposed to be the word of God then why is there stuff like the following:
1. Eve was made from Adam. While the word for rib is used, I believe, it states that the Lord closed up Adam's flesh. But I've heard that it could be translated as seam or "organ of generation". It has led to the speculation that Eve was actually made from Adan's "bacculum", and that the author of Genesis was just using a euphemism. The bacculum is a "penis bone" that many male mammals have. scholars (usually atheists who see the creation story as myth) assume that this is an etiological myth, explaining why men don't have bones in their penises, and why there is a "seam" on men's penises (it has another cause, of course). I know there probably wasn't much scientific and anatomical investigation among the ancient Hebrews, but still...I feel like no one around me gets the implications of that. Woman, assuming this theory is correct, was not made for Adam's side to represent equality with him, or made from a part of him that he could afford to lose, but instead was made from his penis. Phallic worship is a very pagan idea (the idea that it is the penis that primarily gives life and women are just vessels for babies), and I think it's awful and downright misogynistic for that idea to be in the Bible. I'm not some liberal feminist, I'm a guy, but it bothers me. How can we say women are equal to men if the first instance of one comes from an exclusively male organ? It gives off the Freudian idea that women are "just men without penises".
I was told by other people that that theory was incorrect, but I never got any proof. I sure hope it is, but I'd like some answers.
Another problem I have with the Hebrew is the word "Sheol". I understand that that is Hell, but it, like Satan, was supposedly "developed" in Judaism and Christianity, particularly after the exile and return. How can we say that satan existed, that the fall even happened, etc, if it actually didn't and we just added it in? The concept of the Fall of Satan was not always there, then how do we reconcile the idea into the Bible? Furthermore, in Ecclesiates the author seems to imply that all people go to the same place when they die, some sort of place of nothingness. What happened to Heaven and Hell? How did Elijah and Enoch get taken up to Heaven before and after Ecclesiastes, respectively? Why is it that in some books of the a bible, the afterlife is different than what we think of? Was it ever there, or just developed? Did God change things, or do we just change things and then pretend that He did?
This is a big problem for me. I don't like the idea of having to "retcon" anything in the Bible--saying something, realizing it contradicts with something before, and then going back and acting like it's all connected. It bothers me because it undermines the Bible's infallibility and inerrancy. The Bible, if it's really the Word of God, should not have these problems in it. And that's not even getting started on polygamy. God used to approve of it but the. he changed his mind? Or maybe we did when we decided that it was best to have only one wife?
I know that's a lot but I'd appreciate truthful answers that don't dodge the questions.
1. Eve was made from Adam. While the word for rib is used, I believe, it states that the Lord closed up Adam's flesh. But I've heard that it could be translated as seam or "organ of generation". It has led to the speculation that Eve was actually made from Adan's "bacculum", and that the author of Genesis was just using a euphemism. The bacculum is a "penis bone" that many male mammals have. scholars (usually atheists who see the creation story as myth) assume that this is an etiological myth, explaining why men don't have bones in their penises, and why there is a "seam" on men's penises (it has another cause, of course). I know there probably wasn't much scientific and anatomical investigation among the ancient Hebrews, but still...I feel like no one around me gets the implications of that. Woman, assuming this theory is correct, was not made for Adam's side to represent equality with him, or made from a part of him that he could afford to lose, but instead was made from his penis. Phallic worship is a very pagan idea (the idea that it is the penis that primarily gives life and women are just vessels for babies), and I think it's awful and downright misogynistic for that idea to be in the Bible. I'm not some liberal feminist, I'm a guy, but it bothers me. How can we say women are equal to men if the first instance of one comes from an exclusively male organ? It gives off the Freudian idea that women are "just men without penises".
I was told by other people that that theory was incorrect, but I never got any proof. I sure hope it is, but I'd like some answers.
Another problem I have with the Hebrew is the word "Sheol". I understand that that is Hell, but it, like Satan, was supposedly "developed" in Judaism and Christianity, particularly after the exile and return. How can we say that satan existed, that the fall even happened, etc, if it actually didn't and we just added it in? The concept of the Fall of Satan was not always there, then how do we reconcile the idea into the Bible? Furthermore, in Ecclesiates the author seems to imply that all people go to the same place when they die, some sort of place of nothingness. What happened to Heaven and Hell? How did Elijah and Enoch get taken up to Heaven before and after Ecclesiastes, respectively? Why is it that in some books of the a bible, the afterlife is different than what we think of? Was it ever there, or just developed? Did God change things, or do we just change things and then pretend that He did?
This is a big problem for me. I don't like the idea of having to "retcon" anything in the Bible--saying something, realizing it contradicts with something before, and then going back and acting like it's all connected. It bothers me because it undermines the Bible's infallibility and inerrancy. The Bible, if it's really the Word of God, should not have these problems in it. And that's not even getting started on polygamy. God used to approve of it but the. he changed his mind? Or maybe we did when we decided that it was best to have only one wife?
I know that's a lot but I'd appreciate truthful answers that don't dodge the questions.