Work by J Feustel 2012

1. J Feustel
Philosophy 101
Eric Boos
March 31, 2012
Paper #3
God's Misunderstood Plan
By nature, humans seek understanding of all things. This becomes a life long journey, because
knowledge is often not easily obtained. When religion is part of a persons life, often they halt, or at
least slow their quest for knowledge. Christianity is an example of one of these religions.
Understanding is no longer a priority in ones life, because Christianity has offered an easy answer:
God. Since Christians stopped their own critical analysis of ideas, they view these analyses by others as
a threat to their religion. If Christianity did not view questioning God and religion as unacceptable,
Christianity would cease to exist.
The questioning of God dates back as far as the first people on earth, as told by The Bible.
Adam and Eve were the first critical thinkers. In Genesis 2:16-17 God tells Adam to not eat from the
tree of knowledge. “And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the
day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Adam and Eve now both know not to eat from the
tree of knowledge, because it will cause them to die. Genesis 3 begins with Eve talking to the serpent in
the garden of Eden. “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God
had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat: but of the fruit
of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye
touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know
that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good

2. and evil.” The serpent contradicts what God said. God says the fruit will kill you, the serpent says that
is false. Eve has no reason to believe either party. Assuming God actually was correct, it wouldn't
matter, since Eve holds no concept of good and evil. Eve couldn't know that God is good, or that it
would be bad to disobey him. This proposes two possibilities. The first is God knew Eve would eat the
fruit, and wanted her to. It was God's plan. God created humans, and is all knowing. Adam and Eve
were destined to fail at his command. It would seem that this was God's way of providing humans with
a concept of good and evil. If this is the case, why did God first threaten Adam and Eve, and then
punish them for making the discovery? Why would he attempt to discourage their curiosity? It would
seem that God would prefer they continue their life of ignorance. Rather than restore their “pure”
ignorant lives, he cast them out of Eden, to begin their quest for knowledge. God's decision is illogical,
as he had just punished Adam and Eve for their discovery. There was no real consequence of
disobeying God. He now sent them into the world, to disobey him further. The second possibility is
God actually didn't want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree. If this is the case, why did God not destroy
the tree, or not create it in the first place? What purpose would it serve other than to tempt the humans
he created? Since God is all knowing, he knew the humans would eat from the tree. If it was a test of
loyalty, why did he tell them the consequence of eating the fruit was death, and then not have them die?
It would seem that this would cause further questions to arise in Adam and Eve. What else did God lie
to us about? Why did god try to keep knowledge from us? The serpent told Eve the truth, she didn't die
from eating the fruit. Is the serpent the true god?
It is often considered unacceptable for a Christian to question God's methods and aspects of
Christianity. A “good” Christian is supposed to accept the teachings of Christianity blindly, due to their
“faith.” A Christian that questions God is often seen as immature by their fellow Christians. Many
Christians share their own stories of times in their lives where they questioned God, and their faith.
They speak of these instances like a person would talk about dealing with a drug addiction. These
stories continue in detail, and eventually end up with the person “finding” God again. This part of the

3. story is similar to a drug addict speaking of their rehabilitation and recovery. The Christian speaks of
how much better their life is now that they have God again. While this may be true for them, this
method of speaking about critical thinking is used by the Christian to belittle the skeptic. The Christian
talks about a person's skepticism like it is something they are already over. It is as if the skeptic is
immature, and will eventually discover what the Christian already has. This is because the Christian
sees their religious beliefs as fact, with no other possibilities. They are content with these beliefs, and
do not explore other options. It is an interesting position to hold, as it would seem humanity is built on
the exploration of alternatives to all issues. Eve was told by God that the forbidden fruit would kill her.
She challenged that with the help of the serpent, and gained knowledge. Without eating the fruit, Eve
would have never gained the essential qualities of a human. She would have simply been a robot in
paradise. No sense of good or evil, no pain or pleasure. It would seem that only through critical
thinking, and the analysis of everything in life, including God, one can become more human.
Christians discourage others from questioning God, and encourage them to join in a life of
ignorance, or, “faith.” One possibility for the Christian's reasoning, is Christians are fearful of people
discovering that God is either wrong, nonexistent, or not as powerful as previously thought. Like the
story of the forbidden fruit, God turned out to be wrong about the fruit killing Adam and Eve. In
modern times, people still question things, and gain knowledge. This knowledge sometimes contradicts
what is supposedly God's word as told in The Bible. This scares Christians, just like it scared God
before. What is yet to be seen, is a reason of why this pursuit of understanding is wrong. Saying that
questioning God is wrong, because God says it is wrong, is unacceptable. God has been proved to be
wrong, and his word should not be blindly accepted as the truth. An inconsistent source should not be
be used to verify itself. The Christians see that if they too started truly questioning their “faith”, they
would be lead to accept things that contradict their religious beliefs. This threatens the lazy mental
attitude that the Christians have adopted. There would be no more easy answer, that God did it, or God
said so. One without God, has to ask questions and find answers for themselves.

4. Assuming there is a god, and he does love humans, he would want humanity to question
everything, especially him. God created everything. God knows exactly what emotions and capabilities
humans are programmed with. God knows what it takes for a human to grow, and be destroyed. A
person can only develop through questioning things, and gaining knowledge. Some things have
answers, like mathematical problems, while some things don't only have no answer, but propose more
questions, like questioning the size of the universe. To seek an answer to the question “how big is the
universe?” is to initiate growth. The more one questions and discovers on the topic, the more they
grow. When a person finds an definite answer, they cease growth in that department. If a critical thinker
somehow discovered with 100% certainty the size of the universe, they could still analyze other aspects
of life. This is why a Christian cannot grow at the same rate as a critical thinker. A Christian becomes
content with an answer that could answers all questions. God is the answer. God doesn't want to be the
answer though. That is why God planted the forbidden fruit bait for humanity. God wants to be
questioned, and even denied. God knows that if humans view him as perfect, and all knowing, humans
cannot grow. God expects people to question everything, that's what he built humanity to do. If God
wanted humans to worship him, and not question his authority, he would have never made the tree of
knowledge so accessible to humans. He would have never doomed humanity to the fate of free thought.
Before the forbidden fruit, humans were the perfect Christians. They accepted God as a perfect deity,
and had no thoughts of their own.
The ability to embark on the quest for knowledge lies in every person, including Christians.
Christians can use this ability by asking more questions, considering more options, and accepting less
answers. In using their critical thinking skills, Christians would cease to be Christians. They would be
accepting of their new found lack of religion, because through the discovery of knowledge, they grew
as humans. This growth, is God's great plan. God meant humans to question everything, and grow, to
become a truly self-perpetuating species.

5. Works Cited:
1.The Bible (Genesis 1-4)
2.Though I didn't directly use anything of his, I was inspired by Nietzsche's book, “The Dawn”,
specifically the excerpt posted in the article: “Freidrich Nietzsche on Doubt, Faith, and Sin: Are
Humans Made for both Doubt and Faith?” on D2L.