What do you think this is?
And they're different from you and I just how? Do you think that any other group of people God picked would have done better?
If you or I were parked at the foot of Mount Sinai with a bunch of our own, and Moses actually walked up the mountain to meet Almighty God, would you have built yourself a golden calf god to amuse yourself until he returned?
Adam and Eve were created perfect and sinless. They were in the perfect, uncorrupted environment, walked with God in the cool of the day, and STILL chose to turn their backs on Him. It sounds like they were pretty self-indulgent to me.
If they were perfect, how could they sin?
Not to mention, that there isn't any organized religion, Catholicism included, that isn't filled with fickle self-indulgent people. You don't suppose that it's simply because of human nature instead of the particular group they are, now do you?
There are a number of societies much more aligned and disciplined than OT Jewry. Look at the Japanese, for instance.
Try reading the account. Exodus 32. It doesn't say that at all. Besides, if you think that you'd do better, or that any of us would do better, you're deluding yourself. There's more than enough Scripture that deals with the faithlessness of man and pride.
1 Corinthians 10:6-13 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
If they were perfect, how could they sin?
Because they weren't robots. They had free will.
You're arguing like an atheist. That's the kind of thing I hear from them all the time when they try to discredit God or the Bible.
You can do better than that.
There are a number of societies much more aligned and disciplined than OT Jewry. Look at the Japanese, for instance.
Japanese culture is a mess, discipline notwithstanding.
Nor is that evidence that they would have done any better under the circumstances.
What do you think this is?