There are bible preaching multi-thousands upon thousands of invented mythologies originating from all across the human globe; from all cultures and societies across all of recorded history and probably as oral stories before the dawn of written records.
So, is it imagination at work or something else?It’s been frequently claimed that the talking snake / serpent in Genesis 3 was really Satan. You just won’t find any such association with you read the relevant verses.Genesis 3: 1 (King James Version):”Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”Do we note the phrase “beast of the field” here? Do we note the word beast here? Isn’t the word “beast” also used in Genesis 1: 24-25, 30 and Genesis 2: 19-20? It’s also frequently used in the Noah’s Ark mythology.Then there’s…Genesis 3: 14 (King James Version):”And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:”Again, comparisons to cattle and “beasts of the field” not to anything remotely humanoid. And we note the method of locomotion imposed on this serpent. There is not even a remote association to Satan here in Genesis 3.
Of the 49 references to “serpent” or “serpents” in the King James Version of the Bible, only Revelation 12: 9 and Revelation 20: 2 link a serpent with Satan / the Devil. Also there are 13 references to “serpents” and Satan of course is singular. Further, there are three other references to serpents and dust: Deuteronomy 32: 24; Isaiah 65: 25 and Micah 7: 17. There are no Biblical association between Satan / the Devil and dust. There are no Biblical references to Satan / the Devil and belly or even to crawling.And so ultimately we’re left back with the concept of a talking snake, an obvious product of the human imagination on the grounds that real snakes / serpents don’t talk.And hopefully by now you’ll probably put down that talking snake (the “Mr. Ed” of Genesis) to artistic license and the product of the human imagination. But if you suggest that any one part of the Bible is the product of human imagination; if the talking snake is the product of the human imagination, then you would have to logically be willing to concede if not downright conclude that nearly all of the Bible* is the work of the human imagination.Other obvious examples of the human imagination at work and waxing lyrical in the Bible include the creation of a woman from a male rib; another woman being turned into a pillar of salt; a burning bush (that talks) that actually isn’t being consumed in the flames; the relationship between human hair length and strength; Jonah’s ‘whale’-of-a-tale; and the turning of water into wine, an obvious case of imaginative wishful thinking.*Excluding a few non-supernatural historical events that have been independently confirmed.
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