Here's a (Not Blasphemous) Thought
Today, I found myself listening to David Bazan's album Curse Your Branches. Each of the songs on that album are so simply constructed that I couldn't help but to consider the lyrics. The chorus of one song in particular, "When We Fell," is as follows:
When you set the table
When you chose the scale
Did you write a riddle that you knew they would fail
Did you make them tremble
So they would tell the tale
Did you push us when we fell
As with many of David Bazan's songs, he is clearly questioning God's motives in watching humanity plummet into what many might call a state of moral depravity. I've been plagued by similar questions in recent months, as I find the faith that I was taught as a child to be somewhat inconsistent at certain points. I still believe, but I can't help but wonder at some of the things that have been presented to me as universal truths by God's earthly representatives.
It seems obvious to me that Adam and Eve never really had a choice but to fail. Before they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they couldn't possibly have had any understanding of the concept of consequence. Without the understanding for which the tree was named, they wouldn't have been able to make a distinction between good and evil, and thus all conceivable choices would have led to the only result that they knew. It's also no surprise that they were manipulated by the serpent, as they wouldn't have been able to discern his evil.
It's almost as though the game was fixed from the very start.
I can't imagine facing an eternal consequence for someone else's mistake. I was born into my body and have subsequently lived my life to the best of my ability as guided by the experiences that have been orchestrated by the culmination of the free wills of every sentient creation that walks the face of this mortal coil.
Just some thoughts.
When you set the table
When you chose the scale
Did you write a riddle that you knew they would fail
Did you make them tremble
So they would tell the tale
Did you push us when we fell
As with many of David Bazan's songs, he is clearly questioning God's motives in watching humanity plummet into what many might call a state of moral depravity. I've been plagued by similar questions in recent months, as I find the faith that I was taught as a child to be somewhat inconsistent at certain points. I still believe, but I can't help but wonder at some of the things that have been presented to me as universal truths by God's earthly representatives.
It seems obvious to me that Adam and Eve never really had a choice but to fail. Before they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they couldn't possibly have had any understanding of the concept of consequence. Without the understanding for which the tree was named, they wouldn't have been able to make a distinction between good and evil, and thus all conceivable choices would have led to the only result that they knew. It's also no surprise that they were manipulated by the serpent, as they wouldn't have been able to discern his evil.
It's almost as though the game was fixed from the very start.
I can't imagine facing an eternal consequence for someone else's mistake. I was born into my body and have subsequently lived my life to the best of my ability as guided by the experiences that have been orchestrated by the culmination of the free wills of every sentient creation that walks the face of this mortal coil.
Just some thoughts.