The story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection should be interpreted by the reader, not some religious sect comprised and controlled by others. I have read and interpreted the story in the way that is most sensible, applicable, and valuable to me. You are free to interpret it according to your own criteria.
Actually, it's love and sacrifice that seem to go hand in hand more often than not.
That's not what I posted, though. To create beings that are able to reject love, and to actively counteract it, and then to punish them for doing so seems both petty and irrational, to me. And then, to demand the sacrifice of the one person that did NOT reject love, but lived up to it's expectation in every way, seems even more bizarre and absurd.
I understand that love requires the free will of the beloved. I do not understand the insistence on such a dire punishment for the exercise of that free will. That is not love. That's petty resentment. It's an interpretation of divine intention (God's will) that does not pass muster, morally or philosophically, for me.
And, "mankind is punished through that with which he sins" (from the Book of Wisdom in my old Catholic Bible). Meaning that we bring it on ourselves, by our own behavior. This I can understand, and accept. The only sacrifice required for our salvation (from ourselves) is that we stop rejecting love, and forgiveness, and kindness, and generosity (that divine spirit within us). And begin living according to it's inspiration, like human beings, instead of dumb animals.
I accept this message and promise. I do not accept the message that God demands sacrifices to curry his forgiveness.
No, the original sin that underpins all other sins was mankind's desire, and presumption, to be God's equals. To presume unto ourselves the knowledge of good and evil as if we were gods, ourselves. Because when we do this, we then presume that we are the rightful judges of all we encounter, and that it's our place to "correct" everything according to our own desires. It is this grandiose and false presumption of our own divinity that underpins and inspires all our sins: against ourselves, against each other, and against the world.
The story of Adam and Eve in the garden is not a story of 'disobedience', it's a story of hubris, and of profound self-deception.
Yes, but that purpose was not to appease an otherwise unforgiving God. It was to show mankind that killing the messenger does not negate the validity of the message. Nor of the promise that message offers us.
