Oddly enough, I am what people would a "preacher's kid" so the Bible and the book of Genesis has always been in my life. I grew up in a church where these trivial stories were told and retold time and time again. They are stories that are used to display morality and sin and beauty and punishment. Many of these stories seem almost fairytaleish to me. Genesis is just so introductory.
We have been talking a good deal about Christianity in my World Religions class and it has just made me think about religion as a whole and how it works. My professor was just going on about how religions "steal" good ideas from other religions. It seems to be very much true. Every religion has a basis for how the world came about and
who is their creator and savior, but with the exceptions of a few key rules, they resemble eachother.
But going back to Genesis, one story that always stood out to me was the story of cain and abel. They were brothers and cain killed his younger brother. How could a person do that? "I am not my brother's keeper." These horrifying words just add to the intensity of this story. Greed and jealously destroyed a man and brought him to the edge of insanity where he murdered his own flesh and blood. The bond between siblings is strong, but their bond was blinded by hate. I don't know. Thinking about it, I really feel like this is the reason why I needed to find my brother. I wanted a relationship that brought us together not drove us apart. I needed him there. And for those of you who don't know, I just met my brother about 2 years ago. I always knew about him and felt him with me, but never had the opportunity to be in his life until recently.
Genesis is book of unbelievable proprtions in just depends on how much faith you're willing to put in it.
We have been talking a good deal about Christianity in my World Religions class and it has just made me think about religion as a whole and how it works. My professor was just going on about how religions "steal" good ideas from other religions. It seems to be very much true. Every religion has a basis for how the world came about and
who is their creator and savior, but with the exceptions of a few key rules, they resemble eachother.But going back to Genesis, one story that always stood out to me was the story of cain and abel. They were brothers and cain killed his younger brother. How could a person do that? "I am not my brother's keeper." These horrifying words just add to the intensity of this story. Greed and jealously destroyed a man and brought him to the edge of insanity where he murdered his own flesh and blood. The bond between siblings is strong, but their bond was blinded by hate. I don't know. Thinking about it, I really feel like this is the reason why I needed to find my brother. I wanted a relationship that brought us together not drove us apart. I needed him there. And for those of you who don't know, I just met my brother about 2 years ago. I always knew about him and felt him with me, but never had the opportunity to be in his life until recently.
Genesis is book of unbelievable proprtions in just depends on how much faith you're willing to put in it.
First of all, thank you for sharing that personal information about your brother. It definitely helps to connect with a story if you have a personal experience. In the same way as you, I was raised in a Christian environment and have heard the stories of Genesis over and over. Coincidentally, I too always thought of Genesis/ Old Testament as fairytale-ish, as you put it. It seemed to me to be a way help those without faith gain it. Whether that faith be aroused by fear, such as in the Old Testament, or in love and redemption in the New testament. The Bible to me is like a textbook on the one subject that can't be learned, Faith.
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