Atheists & Agnostics

LiberalAndProud

(12,799 posts) Mon Jan 19, 2015, 01:04 AM Jan 2015

The snake was cursed to go on his belly after that.

How he went before, the story doesn't say. And Adam was cursed to work. That is why we have to work. That is, some of us -- not I.

And Eve and all of her daughters to the end of time were condemned to bring forth children in pain and agony. Lovely God, isn't it? Lovely?

If that story was necessary to keep me out of hell and put me in heaven -- necessary for my life -- I wouldn't believe it because I couldn't believe it.

I do not think any God could have done it and I wouldn't worship a God who would. It is contrary to every sense of justice that we know anything about.

...

http://infidels.org/library/historical/clarence_darrow/bible_absurdities.html
=========================================================

I just thought you all might enjoy some Clarence Darrow on this Sunday night.

14 replies

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Highlight:

The snake was cursed to go on his belly after that. (Original Post) LiberalAndProud Jan 2015 OP

Sacrilege. TexasTowelie Jan 2015 #1

This is DU, where a sense of humor is often cause for suspicion and outrage. TreasonousBastard Jan 2015 #2

What I find humorous is that any attempt at a similar back and forth Warren Stupidity Jan 2015 #5

Yes. Yes, it is sacrilege. Curmudgeoness Jan 2015 #9

Just so stories Rainforestgoddess Jan 2015 #3

Of course the "one god" thing.... AlbertCat Jan 2015 #8

We're being punished, all right. But it's an evolutionary trade off. Arugula Latte Jan 2015 #14

What does that mean? "The snake was cursed to go on his belly after that?" DetlefK Jan 2015 #4

As noted it is unclear. Warren Stupidity Jan 2015 #6

The King James and NIV versions say "serpent"... TreasonousBastard Jan 2015 #7

Nakhásh... onager Jan 2015 #11

Enlightening post! JNelson6563 Jan 2015 #12

So evolution was not a slow process. Curmudgeoness Jan 2015 #10

And he failed anyway. Meet the flying snake. AtheistCrusader Jan 2015 #13

TexasTowelie

(112,329 posts)

1. Sacrilege.

Reply to LiberalAndProud (Original post)

Mon Jan 19, 2015, 01:48 AM

Jan 2015

However, since this is the A&A group I hope that they can understand my attempt at humor.

TreasonousBastard

(43,049 posts)

2. This is DU, where a sense of humor is often cause for suspicion and outrage.

Reply to TexasTowelie (Reply #1)

Mon Jan 19, 2015, 02:58 AM

Jan 2015

Warren Stupidity

(48,181 posts)

5. What I find humorous is that any attempt at a similar back and forth

Reply to TreasonousBastard (Reply #2)

Mon Jan 19, 2015, 11:22 AM

Jan 2015

in a related safe haven would be severely admonished and, typically result in the BAN HAMMER OF THE GODS be leveled.

Curmudgeoness

(18,219 posts)

9. Yes. Yes, it is sacrilege.

Reply to TexasTowelie (Reply #1)

Mon Jan 19, 2015, 12:31 PM

Jan 2015

That's the point. I find the humor in it.

Rainforestgoddess

(436 posts)

3. Just so stories

Reply to LiberalAndProud (Original post)

Mon Jan 19, 2015, 04:07 AM

Jan 2015

Zeus was invented to explain lighting and thunder, Posieden to explain storms at sea, Persephone the seasons...

Why does it hurt to push a baby out your cootchie? Women must be being punished for something. I wonder what that could be? Ah yes. Knowledge.

AlbertCat

(17,505 posts)

8. Of course the "one god" thing....

Reply to Rainforestgoddess (Reply #3)

Mon Jan 19, 2015, 12:24 PM

Jan 2015

.... is to consolidate power. Can't have different gods (and especially their priests) arguing over who has jurisdiction over what. And, most unusual, the creator is made male, not female as with most religions (which, mythologically makes sense) to further marginalize women.

Religions are just ancient government.

Arugula Latte

(50,566 posts)

14. We're being punished, all right. But it's an evolutionary trade off.

Reply to Rainforestgoddess (Reply #3)

Wed Jan 21, 2015, 03:25 PM

Jan 2015

Nature: "You want to go around as a high-and-mighty upright bipedal capable of using your hands for many jobs? Fine! But good luck pushing a human being out through your so-called new-and-improved anatomy!"

DetlefK

(16,423 posts)

4. What does that mean? "The snake was cursed to go on his belly after that?"

Reply to LiberalAndProud (Original post)

Mon Jan 19, 2015, 11:04 AM

Jan 2015

I mean, there's this:

Did snakes have legs before God cursed them?

Warren Stupidity

(48,181 posts)

6. As noted it is unclear.

Reply to DetlefK (Reply #4)

Mon Jan 19, 2015, 11:23 AM

Jan 2015

TreasonousBastard

(43,049 posts)

7. The King James and NIV versions say "serpent"...

Reply to DetlefK (Reply #4)

Mon Jan 19, 2015, 12:16 PM

Jan 2015

and that could be any scaly thing. Like a lizard. Or a dinosaur.

So, this particular serpent may have had legs before it was damned to belly up to the ground.

Anyone know the original Hebrew word for this creature? Christian translations often change the meanings of the OT.

onager

(9,356 posts)

11. Nakhásh...

Reply to TreasonousBastard (Reply #7)

Mon Jan 19, 2015, 01:38 PM

Jan 2015

According to the Cesspit Of Lies...which also has some interesting comparisons to serpents in other ancient religions:

The serpent (Hebrew: נחש?, nakhásh) occurs in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. The symbol of a serpent or snake played important roles in religious and cultural life of ancient Egypt, Canaan, Mesopotamia and Greece. The serpent was a symbol of evil power and chaos from the underworld as well as a symbol of fertility, life and healing. Nachash, Hebrew for "snake", is also associated with divination, including the verb-form meaning to practice divination or fortune-telling. In the Hebrew Bible, Nachash occurs in the Torah to identify the serpent in Eden. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, it is also used in conjunction with saraph to describe vicious serpents in the wilderness...

...The Hebrew word nahash is used to identify the serpent that appears in Genesis 3:1, in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis, the serpent is portrayed as a deceptive creature or trickster, who promotes as good what God had forbidden, and shows particular cunning in its deception. (cf. Gen. 3:4–5 and 3:22) The serpent has the ability to speak and to reason: "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made" (Gen. 3:1).

There is no indication in the Book of Genesis that the serpent was a deity in its own right, although it is one of only two cases of animals that talk in the Pentateuch (Balaam's donkey being the other).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_(Bible)

Example of Egyptian/Greek/Roman snake-handling: here's a photo from a place I visited many times when I lived in Alexandria, Egypt: the 3-story underground tomb complex at Kom al-Shoqafa.

This complex was built when the Romans ruled Egypt, but as the Romans tended to do, it incorporates religious themes from ancient Egypt, the Greeks and the Romans. Sometimes side-by-side. One of the funniest statues shows Sobek the Egyptian Crocodile God, standing on his hind legs and squeezed into a Roman soldier's armor.