It starts with the book of Genesis.
Remember the story about Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel? (Genesis 4:1-17)
Adam and Eve have sex, Eve gets pregnant, and Cain ("a man from the Lord") is born.
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. Genesis 4:1
In the next verse, another son (Abel) is born.
And she again bare his brother Abel. Genesis 4:2a
Cain becomes a farmer, Abel tends sheep, and each offers a sacrifice to God. Cain gave God the fruit of his crops; Abel killed some firstborn sheep and gave God all the fat. God liked the fat more than the fruit. (How could they tell? Did God eat the fat while they watched?)
Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD ... Abel ... the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. Genesis 4:2b-5a
That made Cain mad and sad. So he talked things over with his little brother, Abel.
Then he killed him.
And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
...
Cain talked with Abel his brother ... and slew him. Genesis 4:4b-8
God dropped by and asked Cain where his brother was. Cain said, "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? Genesis 4:9
God cursed Cain for killing Abel, making him a fugitive and vagabond.
Now art thou cursed ... a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. Genesis 4:11-12
Cain told God that he was worried about people killing him, so God put a mark on Cain warning people not to kill him or vengeance would be taken on them seven times. (What were God and Cain worried about? There were only two other people alive at the time -- Cain's parents.)
Cain said unto the LORD ... every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. Genesis 4:13-15
Then Cain went off east of Eden in the land of Nod, got married, raised a family, built a city, and did all the things you'd expect a fugitive and vagabond to do on a planet with a total population of 3.
And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. Genesis 4:16-17
But what was the mark that God put on Cain? Was it a sign on his forehead saying, "I killed my brother, but don't kill me or God will kill you seven times"? The Bible doesn't say.
Lucky for us and Mitt Romney, Mormon Scripture does! (More or less, anyway.)
There are four books in Mormon Scripture: The Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. And one of the books in the Pearl of Great Price is the Book of Moses.
Here's what Moses had to say about the seed of Cain.
And Enoch also beheld the residue of the people which were the sons of Adam; and they were a mixture of all the seed of Adam save it was the seed of Cain, for the seed of Cain were black, and had not place among them. Moses 7:22
So Mormon scripture says that the seed of Cain are black and God put a mark on Cain. Someone should ask Mitt Romney if the two things are one and the same.
Maybe it should be (Herman) Cain.
5 comments:
Just discovered this blog and I gotta to say embarrassingly - the passage below is EXACTLY how I came to start thinking, really thinking about the bible. When I actually read it. The other red flags were those little notes at the bottom of each page. When there was something questionable and I needed further explanations, those verses were conveniently not mentioned or simply explained and not to my satisfaction or in anyway that made sense. That part was the most frustrating! For example, the one verse that comes to mind was when god supposedly gave Saul an evil spirit which made him turn on David- the explanation said "god doesn't send evil spirits". I remember screaming, WTF? I just read verbatim where it said the evil spirit came from the lord! That was the most patronizing experience ever. I cannot believe the gall of some of those bible authors. Anyway, all that to say great work. I will admit, it sometimes is still hard to accept that after death there's nothing. I had so much hope in going to heaven and living forever....it is depressing that the world is the way it is and we don't in fact have a savior. What are we living for then? What is the purpose to us, the world, everything? More questions. Much more.
"When I was a Christian, I never read the Bible. Not all the way through, anyway. The problem was that I believed the Bible to be the inspired and inerrant word of God, yet the more I read it, the less credible that belief became. I finally decided that to protect my faith in the Bible, I'd better quit trying to read it....I think most Bible-believers find themselves in that position -- although few will admit it. Not even to themselves"
@ Abbie...
You raise some good issues in your last paragraph before the quote. I will agree that it *is* somewhat depressing that there is so much suffering in the world, but this is pretty good evidence that there is not a benevolent "loving" god. You might also think it's sad that you won't live in heaven forever, but really would you want to spend the rest of eternity in perpetual worship of He Whose Toes You Are Not Fit to Lick? Christopher Hitchens has an interesting comparison between heaven and North Korea. We make our own meaning in our lives. Do you really think your close friends and family wouldn't care if you died? There is meaning there. I believe our purpose is to live, and if we can be kind to others and protective of the Earth, so much the better. Also, I find it enormously satisfying to think that I am made of materials (elements) that were made in the hearts of stars over literally billions of years; so are you and everything around us (even the bible!). The very fact that my individual existence is so so so improbable, yet here I am, makes me feel very special. And so it should you.
If you haven't read any Bart Ehrman, I recommend "Jesus, Interrupted" and "God's Problem", among anything else he has written.
Best Regards,
Steve Weeks
Actually I've found not needing a saviour totally liberating.
It means I can do things, even fight the whole universe, and no need waiting for someone else in hope that maybe one day he'll fix my chair, because I'm just some crippled retard, who can't use a toilet even.
Also when you think through the whole eternal life thingy, it would be the most terrible fate because of boredom.
Abbie, just because most scriptures were written with the sole purpose of gaining power over others, doesn't mean that they are totally wrong. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, LOL. So don't despair. The Biblical descriptions of heaven sound pretty boring anyway and pretty illogical, but that doesn't mean that there is nothing beyond this physical life. Maybe reincarnation is true; maybe we are immortal inherantly and it isn't dependent upon rituals, blood sacrifices or slavish service to any particular deity. Maybe we just change form like water, which can be solid, liquid or gas depending on the surrounding circumstances.
I've actually come back and forth from believing and not believing the Bible, and now once again believing the Bible, again. For quite a while I began to intellectualize and argue with Christians and scriptures and had amassed a great many pages of arguments against the reliability of the Bible. I still find a lot of questionable things to be sorted out, but I don't worry about them so much anymore, or take offense to them the way I used to. Many of us do have a need to understand some things, undoubtedly, but the Bible has turned our ability to [intellectually]understand it all on its head, and it is an elusive pursuit to understand the Bible strictly from an intellectual point of view. Faith and intellectual understanding are often at odds by design, I believe, so that the wisdom of this world is confounded and that faith is exalted above intellectualism alone. What seems evasive to you is evasive by design, because the natural mind cannot understand spiritual concepts. And yes, there are many things that even Christians will not understand either, and there will forever be disagreement between sects, and even within sects. I can't explain it, but faith is something tangible and very real that transcends and supersedes the understanding and ability of mere intellectual deduction. Faith is more than a simple placebo or some blindfolded leap into the realm of wishful thinking, because it dramatically changes lives, heals the sick, and empowers the believer in very real ways that cannot be ignored or denied. And, in the interest of your good sensibilities to be fair, I know that you'll post my comments, seeing that I was once in agreement with you, and that I understand where you're coming from, and sympathize with your desire to intellectualize and reconcile the Bible in some rational way.
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