i hope yo udont' mind me giving a few ideas to think about here with your OP. because of the text limits, i'm just going to use the numbers you gave your questions on in your OP.
i look at the Genesis story as narrative and metaphorical. i mean with walking snakes (we can assume the serpant walked cause of the condemnation) and also that there was similiar stories of the fall floating around at that time.
i do believe the story provides deep truth of how humanitys act, not as how they acted back then solely.
i think original sin is a sketchy attempt at trying to explain the problems of the world. it's too dualistic for me to accept as "truth", but it offers one explanation to give someone some explanation of why there is evil in this world.
i tend to look at the fallen story like this.
we have the same ability that adam and eve had. no one else is guilty for another's sin. no one should be put to death cause of another's sin. it isn't biblical, and it makes no sense with justice (even if the only outcome of the fall was that our bodies die.) we have the same opportunity as they did, and visa versa (the visa versa is only to show my point.
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what i will say tho in this regard is this may be the first instance that we documented (whether or not it is literal or metaphorical) of the first act of sin possibly. but that doesn't mean we're guilty of born into sin because our parents conceived us. it just means we will see the same thing happen time and time again even now, because Adam and Eve as the story goes, were humans, and we are humans. the same traits will always be shared between species.
if Paul's words are right that the plan of redemption was set before time, then God must have known. now why didn't God stop it so that sin wouldn't even be in our lives in the first place? in my opinion it is not God's responsibility to not "sin". that's not me saying that God sins, but what i am saying, whether or not God knew it was going to happen or not may just be irrelevant, cause the blame isn't on God, but on the human being. and even in the Genesis story, take a look at chapters 1 and 2 if you have any free-time. notice there some major differences within the same creation story. point being, the reason why they were written leads me to several conclusions:
we are understanding spiritual truths given to us by Moses the best we can and i think it is safe to assume that most of Christian understanding isn't based on Moses, the story wasn't meant to be "literal" but show deep spiritual truth of humanity, maybe God was wanting to test humanity by asking a question to a guilty person as we all do to someone who has done a wrong when we know they did already, or we see human beings putting human characteristics on a non-human being, meaning God.
to me, sin is breaking the 2 greatest commandments of Christ, which Christ said, are the two laws that the entire law is based on. i'm not going to judge a person if they are sinning or not. what human being has the capacity to even use scripture to say, your sinning. i have my personal views of certain sinful or ungodly actions, but as to define sin by simple actions i think is severely off based.
simply put, if someone isn't loving t heir neighbor as themselves, which would in turn mean they aren't loving God with all their heart, soul and mind, breaking those laws is what dictates as sin to me. i just don't play the shoes of God, unless it's blatant, which when it comes ot that point, even non-Christians can see it as "sin" as well, they just may word if "differently."
i believe the soul difference is because of the authorship of the Bible and the time the scriptures were written playing in a major part. let's remember that the Gospels were written about the life of Christ, and then the Epistles were written to strenthen the church that was being formed around this man, and then Revelations of course being a book that is really hard to put its finger on what the sole intention was about and then we know the Old Testament was books written about the Jewish people and their history with historical happenings, beliefs, spirituality and so on so forth.
and another point, am i suppossed to see God as some schizo because Moses and all the authors portray different versions of "God" in the Bible? i say no. but i believe we see many dimensions of God in the scriptures. we can find prooftext of verses that state God doesn't change, but then others that state God repents. then we see verses that state God is holy, but then verses that light, darkness, holiness and evil come from the Lord. if God is all powerful, infinite and eternal, there are going to be many dimensions we see God, and i think it is shown quite well in the scriptures. we're going to see things that we define as "evil", and then things we define as "good."
i also believe as human being progress, we're going to see changes, progressions in our views of God as well.
point being, i think the different ways of seeing God is solely based on what dimension the authors were looking at with God and with the historical things going on in their life and society. we can't deny that our surroundings effect our perspective of "God", but we can do is critically examine everything and hold on to the good. if God isn't a human being, then i see no reason to judge Him in any fashion. i believe He is holy because of Christ's deeds and Christ's deeds ONLY just cause i'm in the belief that Christ was the most fulfilled examplifer of the Father. i also hold a rather abstract view of the Father, because my human capacity isn't big enough to see God in any fashion. it is only because of Christ that i see God as holy. without Christ, i'd either be in another religion, or two, my view of God, if i would believe in God at that hypothetical point, would either be extremely agnostic, and definitions would be severely abstract, or i may not believe in the first place, don't really know since the only religion i have ever believed in is Christianity and that dates back to since i was 12 years old.
i hope i stayed on topic with my response to that question of yours
i don't know how to answer this. if i would answer by using my own definitions of holy and evil i'd have to say, no i don't believe God did that. but, if i'd be honest with myself too, then i would say those things are possible because of how magnificant God is defined as (magnificant meaning in the adjectives we tie on to God's personality.) so the point is, i don't know. none of us here are ancient individuals that can perceive God as doing such things, some of us just take the claim of Moses as literal things that happened. even with that, what about all the other religions that portrated that God lead them to do such things? ancient civilizations, bent on war and such, finding reasons to move, conquerer their enemies, and i'm not like that and i don't know too many people that think like that, so how can anyone make a true judgement on God with this? i think many things are possible with this here, but i have to keep in mind the differences of the modern readers, and the ancient civilization that wrote these books, especially when the traits of saying God is leading them to war and that God slaughtered these people are claims that other religions made too. again, critically examine everything and hold on to the good.
let's remember who does the preaching of forgiveness? have you heard God say it yet?
i believe if your the same person i've discussed this topic in LT, then you know my views already on hell. but here's maybe some more things to add.
i have my own views that i believe we have talked about when your id name here was different about hell and the afterlife(if i'm thinking of a different peron, please correct and forgive me.) some things to think about with hell is the origins of it. we can see the Old Testament talking more about Sheol, and we can see various of things mentioned about Sheol. Sheol meaning in the here and now, and Sheol meaning the afterlife. then we have the New Testament written in Greek, and see many greek ideas portrayed. ie Hades, and such. then we can see things portrayed with Gehenna, and if you wanted, you can go to "hell" today if you wanted to. there are airline ticketing for that, it's in the Middle East. we can see the historical happenings with pagan religions at the time doing what they did, and reasons why someone would call that "hell". then we can see mythological expression explained by authors like Dante and views vary from Augustine, Origen, St. Gregory of Nyssa and all types of views from afterlife experiences to testimonials. but one question comes to my mind is, ok translations of the Bible may say Hades, but that's a pagan place, i thought i wasn't pagan so should i believe in it? how can pagan mythology mix with Christian mythology (please note, that my use of mythological is not derragotry to Christianity. it's more of stating what it is in its language and usage over the centuries.)
point is, i believe hell is real. i believe we can experience this in this life and i believe we can plant seeds for people to be "redeemed". but what i don't make a set statement on is what places are in the afterlife. i find myself going towards an explanation of the view of the afterlife that there is only one afterlife, and that heaven and hell is experienced based upon one's disposition of God. now i have my other beliefs too, that with a God who's will is to reconcile everyone through the knowledge of Christ as Paul said, that, that gives me reason to have faith or hope that just maybe God will get His Will done. but i guess it's up to the person to either one believe in mythological descriptions as literal fact, or believe they are portraying other things, they view God.
i personally don't bother myself with hell that much. i believe God is capable of doing anything, because of views that i believe about God being all-powerful, infinite and eternal and all knowing, but just because i believe that God can do things, that doesn't mean God will do it either.
i just know that the Christian religion has given me reasons to have strong, and wild eyed hope that the God we serve will reconcile people through the knowledge of God but still acknowledging that i may be wrong when i die and go to the afterlife and that God is more than my understanding. i believe that God condemns and punishes people in this life, i think that fact cannot be overlooked, and i could sure put some adjectives and descriptive metaphors to say that is the fire and brimestone of hell, cause of the pain it gives and how people suffer gnashing of the teeth in thei life metaphorically...the constant turmoil we see. why would God let people suffer like that? i dont' know. i imagine for a lot of the times, it is cause and effect. people bring to them what they get and what they choose has an effect, and if they dont' take the obligations and responsibility every choice gives, the effect could be very hellish. and for those that did nothing wrong, i don't know. i guess it shows how faulty this life can be at times but it shows more importantly that we should be looking at reconciling our life now and helping each other to lead them to figure out how to reconcile their life, so they can be a part of the Kingdom of God and that eternal condemnation can actually stop in this life and no one else being hurt, or producing pain on others.
i hope i didn't get off topic. there are a lot of problems with the idea of hell, so my stance i suppose simply put, God is God and the afterlife is the afterlife, i still have a calling on my life to live this life the holiest i can and to follow the steps of Christ as best as i can, whether or not there is a hell, whether or not God will reconcile all, whether or not the afterlife exists at all, whether or not C hristians are the only ones going to heaven or not.
and don't forget there are many views amongst Christians on the afterlife. eternal torment, annihaltionism, universalism, i've even heard a few things about reincarnation, that seem to stem from Origen's views of the pre-existence of souls. so there are a lot of speculation going around out there...still, maybe that shows the point eh?
i think God could be concerned for our belief structure, because our beliefs is what dictate our actions, and thus the ability to fulfill His Son's 2 commandments could either be one, easily accomplished, or two, easily broken because of our outlook/beliefs on life.
but on that note, i don't believe that normal life expand of human beings is enough time to know the fullness of truth. Paul states that we see darkly through the glass now but we will see the fulness later. so how God judges however God judges, and only one can speculate, but i think it is healthy to have a good belief system filled with honesty, critically examination(no matter if the outcome is like others outcome or not), humility and love, faith (as best as we can, and if we can't, then to do the best we can nevertheless and have the best as we can a good belief system) and leave how God determines who goes where in the afterlife in God's hands...that's His job, not ours and do our best to fulfill the commanmdnets of God given to us from the Jews, and from Christ. of course the outcome is always going to be different amongst things, reminds me of Paul saying, "Work out your faith with fear and trembling." to which the last part i wouldn't go so far that it means like some horror flick fear, but a reverance for God, and reminds me to of something that Paul mentioned that a sin for one person may not be a sin for another (whether that be ideas, or even actions.)
i don't know. i don't have the evidence to provide that states specifically that God exists. i am not convinced of any emperical evidence out there to show this.
but i do believe that faith is the evidence of things unseen. so with faith, comes speculation and hope. i think we see plenty of speculation throughout the entire existence of humanity, not just among Christianity.
so my answer simply is faith. faith is the only way one can believe in things unseen. a collective of faiths "could" show at least, proof of the existence of a Ultimate Divine Being we call God. is faith scientific? it better never be, cause that i wonder and i'm saying wondering here, would kill the very essence of Christianity and all the religions as a whole.
Right, I think that is all for now.
i hope all my response stayed on track.
Peace!
