Why?

Regarding the so-called “Fall”, it is good to remember what St. Augustine called it—O Happy Sin. Meaning that without it, there would be no life—no life as in no poetry, no art, no physical joy, that with immortality and an endless time spent in a Paradise without end there is simply no reason to indulge in Living. Adam & Eve lived in a bubble which allowed for no change, no discovery, no growth, no passion, pleasure, or purpose. Without pain, how can we know what life is worth? Without death, how do we value the one thing that makes it all worthwhile?

I choose to see the expulsion from paradise fable as ironic—of course the “discovery” of good and evil made us aware. But instead of a fall, it was a liberation. We now have choices. I’ll take that before playing a lyre in heaven for eternity any day, any hour, any second.

As for Jesus’ life and death—surely, DRF, you are aware that Jesus wasn’t the only mortal begot by a god on a human? All of the previous ones—Perseus, Heracles, et al—were Heroes. Jesus’ whole story is meant as an endcap to the Heroic Age, the demigod of the last god. The last teddy bear before humankind left the nursery and assumed the mantle of its own responsibility. His instruction? The dragon needing slaying is not Out There, but inside ourselves. Kill it and stop walking around feeling shame for something that no longer holds sway. After all, by his death the sins of the world were (supposedly) taken away.

Time now, I think, to find a new story.

Either he succeeded in washing away original sin, in which case why would we need to do more? Or he failed, so why would we worship him?

Spring, the Vernal Equinox, Passover, Easter have been celebrations of rebirth long before Christianity absorbed the pagan traditions that we celebrate today, even before the time of Jesus, and even before Moses.

As to your other comments: Adam would require redemption for his own sins as would eve. Redemption for sin is individual and personal. The concept of “original sin” is false. We do not inherit anyone else’s sin. We inherit the ability to die from Adam and Eve, but the resurrection is a free gift to all men. All will overcome physical death.

We are not punished for being here on Earth. We are here as part of a plan laid out to help us in our progression through the eternities. As part of that plan the Father knew we would make mistakes. The problem is there are two eternal principles that are at work here, justice and mercy.

First, God must be perfectly just. His laws are absolute. We as imperfect beings cannot, in our current state, be in His presence. We do not merit it and we cannot earn it on our own. This is just.

On the other side is mercy. God loves his children. He wants us to be able to reach our potential. As part of His plan for us Jesus Christ volunteered to provide a way to bridge the gap and allow us to overcome those things that keep us separated from God. It is because of this plan that God in His infinite justice, wisdom and mercy does not wave His “cosmic hand” and delete our sins. We must learn from our own experience to choose to follow His plan. This is a gift He will never take away from us: our ability and opportunity to choose.

Through His willing sacrifice Jesus Christ satisfies both the demands of justice and mercy. Justice demands that a price be paid. In His mercy and love Jesus of His own free will descended below us all to pay every last bit of the demands of justice. This puts us in debt to Christ rather than to justice. He asks that we meet certain conditions in order to make his Atonement of effect in our lives.

Now, whether the Bible seems concocted to you or not is really irrelevant. One’s opinion of something does not make it more or less true. By the same token someone could say the “big bang” Theory seems concocted. There is not definite proof that it is real. All we have is the interpretation of data collected by people who cannot say with certainty that that interpretation is accurate. That is why it is referred to as a theory and not a law. But by stating the Bible stories “are fables” the burden falls on you to prove that.

The subject of who wrote the bible and what has happened to it over the ages is a completely separate discussion that would take too much time to get into here. Suffice to say that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; therefore I believe that other scripture is necessary to help complete the picture.

Sorry, but I simply don’t take as literal truth most of the things on which you are basing your argument. I don’t believe A) that there was a real life Adam or Eve, B) that they lived in paradise, or C) that they were expelled from that Garden by a God for disobeying Him.

Even if I did believe in the literal truth of those things you discuss in your comment, I would still be confused by anyone’s “need” to redeem me or you for something NOT done by us, but done by Adam or Eve. The only reason that we would need to be “redeemed” is that we were unfairly blamed for acts of our ancestors (and the punishment allegedly administered to Adam and Eve was outrageously excessive). Regarding those of us who allegedly need redemption, how could we be to blame for something that occurred when we were not even born yet?

The sort of God who punishes people under those circumstances displays a warped sense of fairness. It would be the same strange warped sense of fairness that such a God allegedly exhibited when He let a mob murder His Son to “save” people whose sin was simply being born into “original sin.” And such a strange thing to saddle a baby with, original sin, especially for an omnipotent God who could, by definition, have deleted that sin with a wave of his cosmic Hand, guided by His “omniscience.”

To me, all of these bible stories seem concocted and un-genuine. They are fables, not history. They were obviously not written by a God. http://www.dangerousintersection.org/?p=668 Such logic and such stories (as I wrote in the above post) are clearly human-all-too-human.

The need for the atonement begins with Adam and Eve. When they were in the Garden of Eden they were in a state of innocence. At that time they were given a commandment to not partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The penalty of which was death. Of course they did partake of the fruit which resulted in the “fall”. By this death entered the world. Now it is important to understand that there are two types of “death”: physical death or the end of our lives when our spirit separated from our bodies and spiritual death, meaning an eternal separation from God.

This is the state that we live in right now. We cannot overcome the obstacles of physical and spiritual death by our own power because we are imperfect. This is why a Savior and an Atonement for our sins is necessary.

Jesus is unique in that he is the “only begotten of the Father in the flesh”. He possesses the attributes of both God and Man. His purpose in coming to earth was to live a perfect life, impart His teachings, and at the end take upon Him our sins and frailties and ultimately offer Himself as a willing sacrifice for all mankind. The culmination of His Atonement is his resurrection. By the act of the atonement as described above Christ overcame both types of death. Spiritual death by taking upon him our sins and giving us the opportunity to meet His conditions for forgiveness through repentance and patterning our lives after His teachings. Physical death was overcome by the resurrection; the act of Jesus taking up His own life again. Through Christ willingly fulfilling His mission we can be reconciled to God. It is not the manner in which He died that is important. It is that Jesus Christ of His own free will, not that of the Father, gave himself as a perfect sacrifice for sin and subsequently conquered death.

I hope this helps you understand a little better that we don’t celebrate the death of Jesus Christ at Easter, but His life and His Atonement.