Is becoming like God good or evil?

[Greatest I am]

Is becoming like God good or evil?

I would like to restrict giving God any other attribute except for knowing good and evil in this thread. Just for simplicity.

I have two quotes I would like you to consider.

“Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.”

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

Knowing good and evil is the same as developing or gaining a moral sense. This is something that all governments and religions wish to develop in us and seems like a good idea to me.

If being perfect like God means that we must have the knowledge of good and evil, then Adam and Eve had to eat of the tree of knowledge ---- if they were to accomplish what most seem to think is a worthy goal. Morals. As God says in Eden, such is to have your eyes opened. A good thing IOW.

In the Jewish view, A & E did the right thing and they name it our elevation. In the Christian view, they did the wrong thing and call it our fall.

Is becoming as Gods, in the moral sense, good or evil?

If evil, please explain what is evil about developing a moral sense and following scriptures that tell us to be as Gods.

Regards
DL

[Richard Amiel McGough]

Is becoming like God good or evil?

I would like to restrict giving God any other attribute except for knowing good and evil in this thread. Just for simplicity.

I have two quotes I would like you to consider.

“Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.”

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

Knowing good and evil is the same as developing or gaining a moral sense. This is something that all governments and religions wish to develop in us and seems like a good idea to me.

If being perfect like God means that we must have the knowledge of good and evil, then Adam and Eve had to eat of the tree of knowledge ---- if they were to accomplish what most seem to think is a worthy goal. Morals. As God says in Eden, such is to have your eyes opened. A good thing IOW.

In the Jewish view, A & E did the right thing and they name it our elevation. In the Christian view, they did the wrong thing and call it our fall.

Is becoming as Gods, in the moral sense, good or evil?

If evil, please explain what is evil about developing a moral sense and following scriptures that tell us to be as Gods.

Regards
DL

Excellent questions DL.

You have touched a very curious theme that I first discovered a couple weeks ago. The Bible begins by saying that all the trouble in the world was caused by Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was the only thing God denied them. But then the rest of the entire Bible exhorts people to do everything in their power to gain knowledge of good and evil! It exalts wisdom and knowledge as one of the highest goals every person should strive for.

Proverbs 1:1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel: 2 To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding, 3 To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity; 4 To give prudence to the naive, To the youth knowledge and discretion, 5 A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,

Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. 7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8 Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones. 9 Then you will discern righteousness and justice And equity and every good course. 10 For wisdom will enter your heart, And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; 11 Discretion will guard you, Understanding will watch over you,

Proverbs 8:7 "For my mouth will utter truth; And wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 8 "All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness; There is nothing crooked or perverted in them. 9 "They are all straightforward to him who understands, And right to those who find knowledge. 10 "Take my instruction, and not silver, And knowledge rather than choicest gold. 11 "For wisdom is better than jewels; And all desirable things can not compare with her. 12 "I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, And I find knowledge and discretion.

The story of the fall looks very strange in this context:

Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

So we have a very strange contradiction at the very inception of the entire Biblical narrative. That which was forbidden and which caused all the problems in the world becomes the very highest of values!

And I had another thought just yesterday morning. The Tree of Knowledge actually looks not like it teaches morality, but that it teaches RELIGIOUS DOGMA. If the Garden is a symbol of the soul, there are two trees available. The Tree of Knowledge is the Tree of Dogma that kills the soul. The Tree of Life is authentic Gnosis of Reality.

Now in answer to your points:

Is becoming like God good or evil?
It is the highest good, of course. As you noted, we are commanded to be like God.

If evil, please explain what is evil about developing a moral sense and following scriptures that tell us to be as Gods.
It cannot be evil to know good and evil. The entire OT (after the mythological chapters which are never referenced again) praises the virtue of possessing knowledge of good and evil. What a strange book the Bible becomes when we open our eyes to see what it really says!

[Greatest I am]

What can I say?
Wow.
A great piece of work my friend.

No theist will dare come against you.

You will know and be advised that with you pemission, I will plagiarize this unless I hear otherwise from you. It is too good to pass up and not pass this around.

Regards
DL

[Richard Amiel McGough]

What can I say?
Wow.
A great piece of work my friend.

No theist will dare come against you.

You will know and be advised that with you pemission, I will plagiarize this unless I hear otherwise from you. It is too good to pass up and not pass this around.

Regards
DL

Dude! You make me blush. Thanks for the encouraging words. Indeed, they were so encouraging they prompted me to write a new article for my homepage:

The Love of Knowledge: A Fundamental Contradiction in the Heart of the Bible

That way you can give the link when you are sharing our new meme.

[Greatest I am]

Shall do.

Regards
DL

[CWH]

I have done several research on this. The story goes like this:

Eve yearned to be like God...wise and knowing good and evil and eternal life. The position of God seemed glorious and prestigious to her. What she didn't know was that having that position of God means several things... skills and knowledge of creation, how to deal with problems of creation etc. It is analogous to an employee yearning for the position of General Manager of a big corporation with the prestige, power, privileges and high pay. But the employee didn't realized that the position of a General Manger of a corporation comes with much higher responsibilities, and stress, knowledge of management and administration dealing with company's politics and policies and disciplines.

To be like God carries two criterias...wise and knowing good and evil just like to be a General Manager, one have to be wise in terms of skill and knowledge in managing the company and "politics" i.e. dealing with good and bad staff and policies. Eve and Adam lack the qualities to be like God i.e. wisdom and knowing good and evil. When God realized that Eve and Adam wanted to be wise like God wise and knowing good and evil, their wish was granted. It would mean hardship in gaining wisdom i.e. science, technology etc. and knowing good and evil meaning dealing with the "politics" of dealing with good and the evil of creation e.g. fire is good in keeping us warm but it can also burnt and kill us etc.; Man can be righteous and good but he can also be evil and bad. In other words, God's wisdom and knowledge of good and evil is inter-related. And therefore to be like God, one must learn and experience wisdom (science, technology etc.) and good and evil (righteousness, wickedness etc.). That requires the ardent journey that humans experienced and learned on earth as he goes through history gaining wisdom and dealing with all the social, emotional, psychological, economical and technological problems of the world on his own. God will come in and help initially and when Humans ultimately are unable to cope with all the vast problems that he faced when trying to reach the goal of "to be like God".

The moment when Eve and Adam gained knowledge of evil and good by eating the forbidden fruit, the first thing they realized they were naked. Nakedness is therefore related to knowing good and evil....why? The first lesson of knowing good and evil is the knowledge of Morality. Animals have no knowledge of good and evil and therefore have no knowledge of morality which is why they are all naked. Humans is the only animal on earth who is ashamed of their nakedness and are clothed thus knowing good and evil and Morality. Morality means knowing what is right and what is wrong and is related to knowing what is good and what is evil. And that has been a struggle ever since as evidenced in human history i.e. good men vs evil men with the ultimate victory of good over evil. The second lesson was probably Wisdom (science and technology) which was why God showed Adam and Eve how to make coverings for their nakedness. The third lesson was probably Love and how to achieve eternal life i.e. Believe in loving God with all your heart soul and might and to love your neighbor as yourself.

God Bless His Creations.

[Robert Hagedorn]

Google First Scandal.

[Richard Amiel McGough]

Google First Scandal.

Hi Robert,

Welcome to our forum!



I Googled and found your blog, listed in position #1:

http://thefirstscandal.blogspot.com/

I followed your directions and found your post called Saint Augustine's Exegesis where you wrote this:

Why should we care about Adam and Eve? Because regardless of our religious beliefs the Adam and Eve story is the oldest well-known story in Western Civilization. This dreamlike story is the story so many people have been trying to understand for thousands of years. Failure has been guaranteed for one simple reason: evidence has been ignored.

1600 years ago Saint Augustine came to the conclusion from his personal experiences and his studies of the Septuagint and the ancient Hebrew/Aramaic text written sometime between approximately 900 B.C. and 700 B.C. based on the prehistoric oral tradition, that the forbidden "fruit" Adam and Eve ate in the garden of Eden really was actual fruit in spite of its mysterious name. He presented his incorrect exegesis in Chapter 8 of The Literal Interpretation of Genesis.

The correct exegesis of the second and third chapters of Genesis will next be presented in a 24 line poem. The poem reflects Scripture, but the poem is not Scripture. If the poem doesn't make any sense, don't worry, because the poem will be explained later.

Please feel free if you would like to present your explanation here.

All the best,

Richard