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Merged (edited) General thoughts about Christianity and the bible

Agree.
Going on his belly was a consequence. (punishment)
Snakes appear supremely well adapted for their method of locomotion. They certainly get around more effectively than I can imagine a horse or koala or chimpanzee managing, if I waved a magic wand and removed their limbs*. Don't you think so?

It's almost as if snakes evolved into their form, and the bible just-so story is really just pretend.

* NB I would not do this out of cruelty but as a punishment for their doing exactly what I needed them to do to move the story along. This makes sense in just-pretend world.
 
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The text doesn't tell us.
But I suppose eating dust is just as annoying as a sweaty brow.
I can't speak for childbirth, but I suspect that was the worst consequence.
No, why did God need to "punish" the serpent? It was only doing what God created it to do.

Are we back to the Randolph Churchill interpretation of God?
 
Ya ok, but I meant it was not a slithery snake till afterwards, as punishment. A reading from the Book of Genesis:

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel


Less clear than I remembered, but it sounds like the serpent was not "crawling on his belly" till afterward, meaning he was upright prior?
I think you are giving it more thought than the authors did.....

If you really want to delve into it you need to start reading the stuff collected in the "Midrash", and that's not a rabbit hole it's a rabbit warren and makes the Jesuits look like the 3rd runner up at a high school debate.

If I recall correctly they have the curse cutting off the snakes' legs, so it could have been like a lizard rather than an upright beast. BUT take my recollection with a pinch of salt it's a long time since I read anything from the Midrash.
 
Has humankind evolved since Adam?

Well, there was no Biblical Adam, but since the agricultural revolution (which in evolutionary terms was a heartbeat ago) humans have evolved lactase persistence, slightly smaller teeth and jaws as our new cooked diet is softer and those that migrated to Northern and Southern latitudes with less intense sunlight for much of the year, lighter skin to aid the synthesis of vitamin D. This list is not exhaustive.
 
And that's where evolution stopped for some unknown reason?
What makes you think it's stopped? Basically, as a species we're (at the moment) quite extraordinarily successful, so there's little in the way of selective pressure.

But it’s still going on. New species are being observed. Bacteria are evolving to overcome antibiotics. It's still happening.
 

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