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Argh! It happened again! Someone once again said "Did you know Adam and Eve did not have bellybuttons?" Then stood there with a smug, superior look on their face, that "I'm so smart I know things you don't know" look. (As if they didn't find it out by hearing it from someone else!) I have only one question:
Where in the Bible does it say Adam and
Eve didn't have bellybuttons?
Can you show me? Do you have evidence to back up that statement? Would you like to take a few moments to search for it? Maybe look in your concordance under "bellybutton"?
Don't waste your time. It's not in the book. Ask anyone who says this foolishness the same questions I just did and they'll begin to give you the "argument in support of" because that's all they have: an argument. (I strongly suggest walking away from arguments. If there is factual support, why argue? If there is no support, what are you arguing about? Why have fits of positivity over something you absolutely cannot know?)
Here's the bellybutton argument: Bellybuttons are a result of being in the womb, connected to the mother by the umbilical cord. A bellybutton is more or less just a scar left by the healing over after the removal of the now useless umbilical cord. Since Adam and Eve were both created, made-by-hand by God, they were never in a womb, never had an umbilical cord, and hence, --TA DA-- didn't have bellybuttons. Simple! (Especially if by "simple" you mean ignorant rather than easy.)
Here's the problem: In His infinite wisdom God knew that every succeeding person would have a bellybutton. Since God was handcrafting these two people, would it not make sense that, a bellybutton being in the overall human design, He would handcraft into them a bellybutton? If only so they wouldn't be freaks among their progeny? Adam lived 930 years (Genesis 5:5) and Eve probably as long or longer (though we don't know because Genesis 5 doesn't list the ages of the females). How would you like to live 930 years and be the only two people amongst thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands that had this one difference? Maybe you wouldn't mind. Some would, some wouldn't. Not knowing Adam and Eve we don't know to what camp they belong. But God did.
The fact is -- there is absolutely no way, no matter how much logic you use, to know whether or not this couple had bellybuttons. You can stand there arguing both ways all day and not get anywhere, because there is no factual, authoritative support for either position. Yet anybody who would stand there arguing all day would be absolutely convinced of the truth of the side they argued. (Believe it or not, I've seen people go into fits over this issue.)
"Why is this relevant?" you might ask. Because, while this is a trivial, somewhat humorous matter, there are far too many serious issues where people are falling into exactly the same fallacy of worshiping human logic as absolute truth without any factual, authoritative material to support it. (Want a quick example? Read a couple of "prophecy books" about what is "about to happen" sometime. Better yet, find some that are 20 to 30 years old and see how convinced they were of what did not happen.)
There is too much "common knowledge" in the church today which is not in the Bible, probably not even true, but is so accepted you would think Jesus himself said it or God carved it into a tablet on Sinai. Somebody got into their own mind, misused their logic abilities, and extrapolated something totally untrue, then started broadcasting it far and wide. Others heard it and because they don't get into the Bible themselves, don't read it, don't listen to God, they were swayed by the logic (and the "cunningly devised fables" of men) and believed the falsehood to the point it is weaved into the very fabric of the modern church. It's not factual, it is not in the book, but "everybody knows" it.
(Perhaps even worse is when someone stands up to denounce something, screaming, "I read this Bible from cover to cover and it's not in the Book!" but it is in the book, from cover to cover, with even Jesus and God Himself saying it, but because the listeners don't read the Bible and don't have relation with God, only with the man to whom they are listening, they believe the lie.)
You need to read your Bible for yourself. You need to look up the supporting evidence for yourself and not just trust the speaker to have done it for you. You need relationship with God. You need to be able to hear from His Spirit so you can have discernment and instruction. Lastly, don't fall in love with your own logic, or anybody else's logic!Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.Proverbs 3:5-6
There are places where extrapolation is legitimately useful, but please, temper it with the knowledge that it is just that, extrapolation, and without any authoritative "this is what was" it is open to question and mistake. Remember, it is possible for someone else to come along and logically conclude the exact opposite of anything. How many new movements have been founded on just this type of "revelation," where what everyone believed is suddenly "disproved" by someone else's new logic? How many Christian kids grow up, go to college, suddenly see that there are other ways of looking at things and assume since this is new to them it must be superior and right? (You do realize just because someone can look at something a different way does not make the different way right and the old way wrong, don't you? You do realize just because it is new does not make it progressive or superior, don't you? Just look at human history: progress followed by collapse, over and over again. Yet each collapse was precipitated by "new things," things which, obviously, were not progressive, correct, or even good and desirable!)
(Romans 10:9, John 3:17, John 5:24, John 1:12)
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