One question. Can animals sin? There are like. Gay penguins and stuff. As per Wikipedia âAbout 8% to 10% of domestic rams (male sheep) refuse to mate with ewes (female sheep) but do readily mate with other ramsâ Elephants also exhibit courtship behaviors towards same-sex individuals. Bonobos, one of our closest relatives, do not show preference between mating with same-sex or opposite-sex individuals.
And thatâs just the lgb of lgbt+. Clownfish naturally transition to balance the sex ratios of their schools. Bees have 3 biological sexes (the queen is a separate sex from the others). And then thereâs whatever anglerfish have going on!
our world is so beautifully diverse, it doesnât make sense why any being would create all this and then turn around and go âoh but if humans specifically are gay then thatâs wrong and they need to stop doing that.â Seems a bit arbitrary for the very being that gave us free will to be against something like that. Unless itâs simply a test of faith like the story with Issac. Maybe the part where angels tell us it was just a big trust exercise didnât get written down? Or it did and that bit was destroyed or lost to time?
Something thatâs always fascinated me about the Bible as a historical record is that a lot of it does line up with other historical records. But parts of it donât. For instance, the Ancient Egyptians kept excellent records, but thereâs no record indicating that they went from having a lot of slaves to having little to none at all. But there are Egyptian records of at least some of the plagues. Thereâs a lot to think about with this stuff.
I just think that if no one agrees on how to interpret a lot of this stuff anyway, thereâs room for you to question what you think it all means.
The thing that separates the Bible from other historical documentation is that the divine is inherently unknowable and beyond human comprehension on some level. So for humans to document matters that are literally impossible for them to fully understand⊠well, then misunderstandings are inevitable. It seems like this is something youâve been questioning for a while, considering how youâre responding to a lot of asks with stuff like âi used to wonder that tooâ or the like. I donât think you should stop wondering, is all.
I hope Iâm not overstepping. Matters of religion are often a touchy subject and all, and I donât think your core beliefs need to change or anything like that. You seem like a kind person. Trust your own judgement, even if it doesnât line up with how other people interpret things. Does that make sense? Like, if scholars are saying âthis line means God doesnât want us to be gayâ you donât have to believe them. Just like you donât have to believe me. You have faith that God is good. Ask yourself what âgoodâ means, and donât let anyone else answer for you.
These are all very good topics of discussion!
God created humans to be separate and different from the animals. In Genesis, God creates the animals first, and saves the humans for last, clearly creating a distinction between us and them.
"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on earth.'"
Genesis 1:26
This means that humans were created to bear God's image and reflect his character. We were also created to stand ABOVE the animals and rule over them. So humans were given greater responsibility, and as image-bearers of God, were given a conscience on what is right and wrong.
Unlike humans, animals don't have that conscience. There are plenty of things that animals do that would be terrible to do as a human. Animals kill, rape, do incest, and cannibalize. They don't know any better. These things are obviously bad, but exclusively to humans, because God has put it on our consciences that they are bad. Therefore, humans shouldn't do everything that animals do, because we are not animals. God holds humans to a higher standard than the animals.
2. I have heard that the Ancient Egyptians were good record-keepers. But according to who? Them? I don't think an empire as big as theirs would be so keen to record something that would tarnish their reputation, that they lost an entire nation-worth of slaves that humiliated them and their gods.
Also, only about 1-30% of ancient Egypt as been unearthed. Lots of their records have been lost to time, so there's no way of knowing from the ancient Egyptians if it never actually happened. We can just use the sources that survived, AKA the Bible.
I'll probably do more research later on evidence for the Exodus. Apparently this is also a widely debated topic.
I still believe it happened.
3. Have I stopped wondering?
Something I've learned is that the mystery of God never stops giving us more things to learn about.
Of course, as you say, there are some things about God's divinity that are beyond our comprehension. The Bible even confirms it.
"Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven -- what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea."
Job 11:7-9
But just because there are some unknowable things about God, doesn't mean that He didn't give us anything to work with. He's revealed Himself in many ways that humans could understand, through the Bible, through His creation, through miracles, through dreams, through His character traits in other people, and through Jesus Christ. I should do my best to learn more about His true character with what He has revealed to humanity.
As an infinite being, God keeps giving humans more things to learn. And as I go through life and go to church, I find more things to learn about what the Bible means, and more ways I can apply it to my life.
But as I'm going through this journey, I'm focusing on the Truth. Truth is not based on anyone's interpretation, it just is. I know that God will always tell me the truth, so I want to get closer to what God actually meant when He gave us the Bible. It's also why I can't interpret the Bible according to my own judgement, because I know very well that with my limited wisdom, I could be wrong, and I want to be right about God.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"
Jeremiah 17:9
And I know that there are grave consequences about misinterpreting the Bible. Just look at America's slave history. The slave owners all used the Bible to justify the evil of slavery. The Bible is against slavery, in how it uses language like "slaves to sin" and "being set free from sin," and with the whole story of God freeing the enslaved Israelites. But when verses and passages are cherry-picked and taken out of context, evil human agenda can be justified because "they trusted their own judgement."
So how do I know what is and isn't true? I'm still figuring it out. If I see a new interpretation of the Bible, I will not judge if it's right based on my feelings, but on whether or not it lines up with the rest of what God has to say or has revealed.
