>>It was not the Christians who wrote the old testament, if you
>>hadn't noticed...  The creation story is one that the Christians
>>adopted from the Hebrews, and they seem to have taken it from
>>the Babylonians.
>>
>Superficially, the story of Genesis appears to be like the Babylonian
>version. Superficially too, you can say the story of Genesis is like
>many other cultures's stories of creation. Notable exceptions are the
>Hindu and Greek philosophical models, which postulate an eternal,
>unchanging universe. In that case, one wonders why there is so much
>similarity.
>

Indeed, there are creation stories from all over the place... the
reason that the Babylonian ones might be particularly significant
is that the Hebrews were in captivity in Babylon for 70 years
or so...  It would be very easy to believe that they had either
adopted the same material as the Babylonians.

>But what is notable about the Genesis version, as against the rest is:
>1. most have an equally powerful evil deity opposing the Creator, which
>Genesis does not have (the serpent was obviously subordinate to man, who
>was subordinate to God).

One of the famous Assyrian books, the Babylonian Epic of Creation,
contains the following:

The tale of the birth of all things from the Chaos of the waters,
the struggle of the creator with the chaos dragon Tiamat (I remember
that this is in Psalms, but cannot remember which ones... anyone?)

After defeating the dragon, Bel orders the seas, creates the heavenly
bodies, the plants and animals, and finally 'Adamu' and his wife.

Following this is their temptation by the dragon, Tiamat.  It contains
their fall, and curse.

The people are sinful, and there is a Deluge, which destroys everything
but one family in an ark, who bring with them the 'seed of all life'
After everything is covered, the man of the family sends out a dove,
a swallow and a raven, and the raven does not return, having found
dry land.

There is a tower of Babel, and Anu, the father god did this:
 "In his anger also the secret counsel he poured out;
  To scatter abroad his face he set;
  He gave command to make strange their speech;
  Their progress he impeded."

These writings have been dated to about 7000 BC, far before the
Moses was supposed to have lived.

(source on all this: _Is it God's Word?_ by Joseph Wheless)

>2. most are polytheistic, and these deities are every bit as fickle and
>as imperfect as humans. Genesis has God (although there are two or three
>references to "we" when God talks to "himself" : but this can be understood
>in terms of the Trinity). God is perfect and tolerates no evil.

The Hebrews did not have a trinity.

It is also very dangerous to take the English translation of the Bible
literally, as it is clear that the translations generally turn even
plural passages of the Hebrew text into singular.

From Wheless:
Thus Jacob said of the place where he dreamed that he saw the ladder:
"This is none other but the house of the gods [beth-elohim]"; and
he set up a phallic "pillar" or mazzebah, and called it beth-el --
"the house of God" (Gen. xxviii, 17-19). And elohim (gods) came to
him in a dream and said: "I am the El of Beth-el" (Gen. xxxi, 13);
and Jacob built there an altar and called the place Beth-el,
"because there ha-elohim [the-gods] were revealed unto him" (Gen.
xxxv, 7). Here the Hebrew text expressly uses the plural, noun and
verb -- the-gods were revealed"; but the Authorized Version falsely
translates: "God appeared unto him." The Revised Version correctly
reads "revealed," but uses wrongly the singular "was."

and:
Yahveh tells Moses that he is El-Shaddai (God my Daemon; Ex. vi,
3), as he is often peculiarly called; and in Joshua he is called
Yahveh-El-elohim, translated "the Lord God of gods" (Josh. xxii,
22), and so scores of times, proving that Yahveh was merely one El
or God of or over the other gods or spirits which abounded in the
Hebrew and neighboring pagan mythologies.

and:
There is proof of plurality which even translation cannot in
this instance conceal: "And-said ELOHIM [gods], Let-make-us man
[adam] in-image-our, after-likeness-our" (i, 26). And the words of
the text indicate there must have been female gods, too; for it is
recorded: "And-created elohim the-adam [man]; in-the-image of-
elohim [gods] created-he-him; male-and-female created-he-them."
This is reiterated for positive assurance: "In-the-day that elohim
created adam [man], in-the-likeness of-elohim [gods] made-he-them;
male-and-female created-he-them; and-blessed them, and-called name-
their adam [man], in-the-day when they-were-created" (Gen. v, 1-2).

There are several other examples, but I thought these would suffice...
if you would like a few more, I'd be happy to oblige.

>3. the basis on which God makes his judgements are stated quite clearly
>in Genesis. Disobedience, homosexuality, etc, unlike the wimps and fancies
>of other deities.

It seems to me that here you are right, and it is based on one
thing only... contempt of God.

Against Adam and Eve for disobeying him.
Against Cain for lying to him, and for slaying his favored one.
Against the pre-flood humans for 'wickedness'-- specifically for
  matings between human women and beni ha-elohim, the sons of God
  (if you consider elohim singular) or the Gods (if you consider it
   plural)... other sons of God seem to be: Isaac(Gen xxi,1,2),
   Samson(Judges xiii, 71 91 24), the 5 children of Hannah
  (I Sam. ii, 21), and the child of Joseph's virgin wife.(Heb. i, 5; v, 5)
   Of course, you have to read Gen 6:4 and 6:5 to get this idea--
   a better check would be to check the meaning of the word
   'wickedness', but I don't have that word's meaning at the moment.
   You could also consider 'Corrupt before God' to indicate derision,
   though again, I don't have a check on the accuracy of that quote.
Against Babel for their desire for fame (and the challenge to God this
   implies).
Sodom and Gomorrah have open contempt for God, and the Sodomites
   try to rape his servants.
Lot's wife disobeys God's command.

and so on...

>4. God in Genesis and the rest of the Bible shows compassion, something
>few, if any deities of other religions showed. When Abraham
>besought him to spare entire cities of sin: Sodom and Gomorrah, if he
>could find just ten righteous men, God did not fly into a rage and strike
>Abraham down, as would the gods of other creation stories. Instead, he
>talked to Abraham, certainly his inferior, as a friend. So too in the
>story of Adam and Eve, when instead of striking them down striaghtaway,
>he spared them, and clothed them and promised them a future deliverance.
>

The idea that Yahweh is somehow more compassionate than other gods
is proven wrong in almost every passage of Exodus.  He is called
terrible, dreadful or some such in most books of the old testament.
He kills almost everyone on earth in Genesis, for example... he
kills or orders killed thousands of women and children and so on...
I've run on long enough here, so I wont quote them for you, but
if you're still interested, I can.

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