(no subject)
There's nothing like have religious skeptics in your own home to make you truly realize how easily anyone can find whatever meaning in the written word to suit their ideas and agenda.
Adam and Eve is a story that demonstrates the pursuit of knowledge is sinful. Or is Adam and Eve a story about how greed destroys everything that has been given to you?
If meaning and context is so fluid, it seems that instead of arguing who is right or wrong, we're better off finding the meaning that makes us grow as a person and carry that in our heart instead of using it as a bludgeon for our bad behavior.
But find the truth that makes you grow to be more loving, more kind. The truth that makes your heart feel bigger. Not the excuses you need to stay angry, fearful, and self-righteous. No one needs to teach you which meanings are the right ones - you'll know it in your heart.