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One simple detail to rule them all. (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by [deleted]

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[–]songifyer 51 points52 points ago

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I'm an atheist and this picture presents an embarrassingly bad argument. The mistake has everything to do with the artist and nothing to do with the religion.

[–]Rad_Spencer 5 points6 points ago

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Plus if you believe god simply created them, it's not exactly a leap that he also create belly buttons for them?

[–]antoniomb 2 points3 points ago

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yeah, but that would mean god also have a belly button...

[–]Rad_Spencer 0 points1 point ago

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So? Why can't god have a belly button?

[–]Kohdella93 1 point2 points ago

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Belly buttons are caused by the umbilical cord being cut. If god was born then he had an umbilical cord. If not than he was either born from an egg, split from another being, or just appeared out of no where.

[–]Fazaman 2 points3 points ago

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Belly buttons are caused by the umbilical cord being cut.

Not exactly, but close enough.

[–]flignir 0 points1 point ago

Well, a vagina isn't "caused" by the shape (or insertion) of a penis, even though it seems genetically engineered to accommodate. Isn't the navel similar? Meaning, aren't they both genetically encoded to develop the way they do? It's not JUST a scar; the umbilical cord always attaches there for a reason.

Also, I realize the picture depicts a myth, but why the myth needs to require that the first two members of the species couldn't have been intelligently designed to resemble their descendants exactly, I can't imagine.

[–]Fazaman 0 points1 point ago

Wow... I had to hit 'context' on this one, cause I had no idea what recent comment I made that would warrant this response. 4 months. Not bad. Ok...

So, what I'm saying is that the belly button is not caused by the cutting of the umbilical cord. Even if it wasn't cut, it would still develop the way it does. Many people think the particular shape it takes is caused by how the doctor cuts the cord, or 'ties it off' or some such, but that's not how it works, it just sort of develops that way after the cord dries up and falls off. That's what I was referring to.

As for the discussion at hand, yes, the cord -> belly button attachment is genetically encoded to be there as part of the development of the fetus to allow for the nourishment of the fetus while it is inside the womb.

The idea behind this picture is that, even if genetically speaking, Adam and Eve were coded to have belly buttons, since they were 'created' out of nothing, the belly button would not have been necessary since they never formed from an embryo which necessitated nourishment from it's mother, and since God is all powerful, why would he create them with this useless feature.

That said, yes, they could have been created so that they wouldn't be different from what they were genetically coded to have been had they developed normally. It's a silly picture to point out the absurdity of the whole creation myth.

[–]flignir 0 points1 point ago

Wow. Aren't I the random one? Somebody reposted it. Someone else linked to the 4 month-old thread, and I forgot I was reading the old one before I commented.

Must have been interesting to get this new comment and wonder "What vagina discussion am I forgetting I was in now?"

[–]Fazaman 0 points1 point ago

Must have been interesting to get this new comment and wonder "What vagina discussion am I forgetting I was in now?"

It was, indeed. That was a confusing few seconds till the context came up.

[–]Rad_Spencer -1 points0 points ago

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If you can accept that he either just appeared out of no where, or has simply always been, then you can accept that he has done either of these with a belly button. Or didn't, but created Adam and Eve with belly buttons.

If an argument's foundation is supernatural, you can't except a biological fact to unravel everything in the minds of those who accept the supernatural foundation.

[–]robinhl 0 points1 point ago

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Right, because he made them in his image. Which raises other questions: if he made both of them in his one image, is "he" male, female, or both? http://robinhl.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/hermaphrodite.jpg

[–]antoniomb -1 points0 points ago

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wrong, he made the man in his image, the woman is just a 'companion' because the man Adam was alone (and i don't remember what happend to Lilith)

[–]jaredmanning 0 points1 point ago*

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Came here to say that. Even as a christian I said this every time I saw this.

EDIT: my statement may have been confusing. I'm an atheist, USED to be a christian.

[–]shanewire 0 points1 point ago

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Spot on. Thank you. You can no more accept this as proof of evolution than a painting of god as proof of his existence. Its a moronic argument. At the most this is a clever easter egg left by an athiest artist in a time when athiest were persecuted but even that's a stretch.

[–]JoeyJoeJoeJrShab 7 points8 points ago

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I'm sorry, but I've always considered this bellybutton argument to be incredibly lame. God could just as easily have created Adam and Eve with or without bellybuttons. Maybe he made them with bellybuttons so they wouldn't freak out when their kids had bellybuttons.

If you want to argue about Creation on the topic of anatomy, I suggest asking why males have nipples. Why does the optic nerve run in front of the retina? Why does the laryngeal nerve take the path it does (particularly on giraffes). Were I a creationist, these questions might give me pause... but the one about bellybuttons would not.

[–]Burnaby 0 points1 point ago

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Just doing a little bit of Devil's advocate here (although I suppose that's not entirely the correct way to describe it): Creationists say that all animals were created perfect and are degrading over time. Is it not possible that the things you've listed are degradations of the original state of man? For nipples and the laryngeal nerve, it could just be that that's a mutation that has a large chance of happening and that's why we see it so much.

P.s. I've used this argument too, by the way, I'm just considering its solidity.

[–]Ryuuzoji 1 point2 points ago

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We are degrading from God's perfect design and changing into something else slowly over time. Strangely however this degrading process leaves animals better off than then were before, which means:

1) God's design wasn't perfect if changing it makes it better 2) That argument sucks. It's basicly saying "evolution is real, but it blows!"

[–]IanSlinger 3 points4 points ago

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A google search for "Adam's Navel" will reveal that the question of whether Adam and Eve had belly buttons has been a hotly debated theological issue for quite a long time. By far the most lucid commentary has been provided by the fine divinity scholars at Landover Baptist University.

[–]Scatterpickles 0 points1 point ago

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Nice article, thanks =) Been wondering what believers thought of Adam and Eve's navels for a while.. Cannot grasp that some people believe God's cord was attached to the universe, but shit, whatever helps them sleep at night.

[–]bright24 2 points3 points ago

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Adam and Eve have a belly button because that is where god poked them to see if they were done. Geesh.

[–]enkidoo 1 point2 points ago

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Also, the apples aren't eaten yet but the snake has no legs.

[–]wootmonster 1 point2 points ago

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Never... ever, ever, ever, ever underestimate the power of wilful ignorance

[–]Akaforty 0 points1 point ago

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Applying christian logic to argument christianity is a great tactic, Goliath_Online.

[–]The_Kommunist 0 points1 point ago

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fight fire with fire as they say...

[–]themaskedugly 0 points1 point ago

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It's a painting. The artist almost certainly used a model for it. This isn't an argument about religion, its a painting of two people, reperesenting adam and eve.

[–]GingerWithFreckles 0 points1 point ago

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I mean, thats totally a picture taken of the actual Adam and Eve..

[–]mattg63 0 points1 point ago

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This is not a photograph. This is a stupid argument.

[–]Raggz 0 points1 point ago

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You do realize this not a photograph?

[–]hereiam2 0 points1 point ago

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Funny, but it is just a painting. It's not like it was taken directly from the bible.

[–]dlq84 0 points1 point ago

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Painting is wrong, bible is correct. I'm with you man.

[–]bornagainredditor -2 points-1 points ago

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Ah the umbilical cord. MAJOR detail

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