II. THE STORY OF CAIN, ABSURDITIES OF.
1. Did not Eve dishonor God when, at the birth of Cain, she said, "I have got a man from the Lord" (Gen. iv. 1), inasmuch as he turned out to be a murderer?
2. Did not God know that Cain would become a murderer? If he did not, he is not an omniscient God.
3. And, if he did know it, would it not make him accountable for the murder?
4. Why did God set a mark on Cain that "whosoever should find him should not slay him" (Gen. iv. 15), when there was no "whosoever" in existence but his father and mother? And it can not be supposed they would have to hunt to find him, or that they would kill him when found.
5. And how could "whosoever" know what the mark meant?
6. Where did or where could Cain have gone when he "fled from the presence of the Lord" (Gen. iv. 16), as David says he is present everywhere, even in hell?
7. How could Cain find a wife in the land of Nod (see Gen. iv. 17), when he himself had killed the whole human race excepting his father and mother? There were then no women to make wives of.
8. Why did Cain build a city (see Gen. iv. 17), when there was nobody to inhabit it?
9. As there were "workers of iron and brass" in this city, does it not furnish evidence that there was a race of people who had attained a high state of civilization before Adam was made?
10. And as brass is not an ore, but a compound of copper and zinc, does it not furnish evidence that the mining business and the mechanic arts were carried on long before Adam's time?
11. If Cain did find a wife in the land of Nod, is it not evidence that some ribs had been converted into women before Adam's time?
12. Where did Cain find carpenters and masons to build his city, if his father and mother constituted the whole human race?
13. Did not Jehova know when he accepted Abel's offering and rejected Cain's, that he was sowing the seeds of discord that would lead to murder?
14. And did he not set a bad example by showing partiality, as there is no reason assigned for preferring Abel's offering?
15. Had not Cain just ground for believing that his offering of herbs would be accepted, inasmuch as Jehovah had ordered Adam to use herbs for food?
16. Must we conclude that Jehovah had a carnivorous appetite, which caused him to prefer animals to vegetables for sacrifices?
17. What sense was there in dooming Cain to be a vagabond among men, when there was but one man in the world, and that his father?