Genesis, the first book of the Bible, has an error about the safety of eating plants. According to Genesis, God provides for humans every plant for consumption. Science, however, makes it clear that some plants are poisonous and will kill us; in fact, we knew that some plants are dangerous even before science and science simply explained how and why. It's an error to claim that every plant is safe and appropriate for us to eat.
Genesis 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
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It would be one thing if the Bible depicted God as providing all the plants for humans to use in some general sense because even plants that are too dangerous to eat might still have other uses. Indeed, many plants probably have uses that we have yet to discover. Specifically singling out the consumption of plants, though, is what makes this an error and it's something that even humans at the time should have known better about.
We can certainly assume that a god would have known better. After all, most parents know better. What would you think about a person who told their children to go outside and eat whatever plants they found in the garden or yard? Does that sound like even remotely good parenting? Such a person would have their kids taken away from them and probably be jailed.
Is this a legitimate, scientific error in the Bible or can the Genesis description of God offering all the plants to humans for consumption be harmonized with the facts of science? If you think you can answer this Bible error, explain how â€" but your answer cannot add anything new that's not already in the stories and cannot leave out any details that the Bible provides.
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