Besides studying the bible in my RCIA class (discussing the readings from that day's Mass), a little bit in college, and readings given in church, I have barely scratched the surface of the Bible. I hear that most Christians haven't read the Bible (this isn't really all that surprising, since it is quite a beastly book length-wise), so I thought to myself: why not? I've set myself a 6 month deadline to try and read the Bible cover-to-cover (Old through New). I'm sure that I will falter along the way, but I'm going to give it the good-old-fashioned-college-try and see if I can make it all the way through.
I'm reading the Bible chronologically, so today I started off with the first 8 books of Genesis. Now, one of the big stinkeroos about Adam & Eve is that because of eating the forbidden fruit, all of mankind that has followed has inherited sin. That is to say, we are all inherently sinful because of their act of eating the fruit. This has never seemed fair to me...why should I suffer the consequences of someone else's actions?
So, since God is perfect, it is impossible for him to create anything that isn't perfect (according to the philosophy of Leibniz)...if God were a master carpenter, He wouldn't create a chair that was unstable for his patrons (hello, he's a master!)...So, there's a seeming paradox with humans since they are created in His image but ultimately they go astray, become lawless, and are then wiped off the face of the earth via The Flood...Are they still a perfect creation? Is God still perfect even though He created a seemingly inferior product?
Noah. Noah is the exception that proves the rule. After centuries of babymaking and population, God decides that only Noah shall survive (plus his kin). Noah does not ask God questions, he just obeys. He is the beacon of lawfulness in a world full of lawlessness, brought about by mischievious man. So, Noah is a shining example of how Adam's descendents have the potential to be lawful and are not necessarily doomed to sin. God recognizes that "the desires of man's heart are evil from the start," and that Noah is one of these people. The only reason Noah is chosen to survive must be because he ignores his own evil human desires to instead listen and obey God's desires.
So, human desire = bad (inherently...we were created with said desires)
God's desire = good
Desire to listen and obey God = good
However, one question remains unanswered after today's reading:
Why is nakedness bad?
