jamesd1628
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Okay, this is a tough topic to present without throwing out a wall of text, but I’m going to try because it is (in my opinion) quite interesting and should spark some good discussion. Here goes . . . .
Christianity generally teaches that the human race began with God creating Adam and Eve, two specific human beings, who then spawned the remainder of the human race, as well as committing the original sin, thus resulting in the fall of man. Obviously, the story is told in Genesis, which purportedly tells the story of the creation of man, the fall of man and what comes immediately thereafter.
Anthropologists tell us that modern man has been around for at least 100,000 or so years, and possibly much longer (I’m going to ignore the evolution issue and just stick to when anthropologists believe that modern man first came into existence). By contrast, civilization began roughly 10,000 years ago, give or take. So that means that modern man has existed on earth for roughly 10+ times longer than the amount of time man has attempted to perpetuate civilization. Prior to civilization, people apparently lived as hunter-gatherers, with no permanent settlements.
Christians have put forth many arguments to attempt to rectify the potential discrepancies in these various world histories. I’m sure some of the folks on here will be happy to enlighten us on some of those. What I’m interested in is an idea far more interesting, something suggested, implied and/or outright stated by a variety of sources that I’ve come across. That idea being that the Bible should be read, not as the story of the origin of man, but as the story of the birth of civilization. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden would represent man living in pure nature as hunter-gatherers. The fall of man would correspond to the birth of civilization itself, i.e., man’s change from living in a state of nature to living in organized civilization.
There are several aspects of the Genesis story that arguably support this idea. For example, it is commonly believed that civilization began with man’s domestication of plants and animals. The Bible seems to make reference to this in Genesis, as the initial children of Adam and Eve were Cain, the crop farmer, and Abel, the animal shepherd. There are many other elements of the book of Genesis that seem to parallel the development of civilization. One article I have read specifically states that “Genesis 4 seems to describe the cultural achievements associated with the Neolithic revolution, evidence of which is preserved in archeological sites throughout the Near East.”
There is much more, but I’m trying to keep the original post relatively brief . . . .
Christianity generally teaches that the human race began with God creating Adam and Eve, two specific human beings, who then spawned the remainder of the human race, as well as committing the original sin, thus resulting in the fall of man. Obviously, the story is told in Genesis, which purportedly tells the story of the creation of man, the fall of man and what comes immediately thereafter.
Anthropologists tell us that modern man has been around for at least 100,000 or so years, and possibly much longer (I’m going to ignore the evolution issue and just stick to when anthropologists believe that modern man first came into existence). By contrast, civilization began roughly 10,000 years ago, give or take. So that means that modern man has existed on earth for roughly 10+ times longer than the amount of time man has attempted to perpetuate civilization. Prior to civilization, people apparently lived as hunter-gatherers, with no permanent settlements.
Christians have put forth many arguments to attempt to rectify the potential discrepancies in these various world histories. I’m sure some of the folks on here will be happy to enlighten us on some of those. What I’m interested in is an idea far more interesting, something suggested, implied and/or outright stated by a variety of sources that I’ve come across. That idea being that the Bible should be read, not as the story of the origin of man, but as the story of the birth of civilization. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden would represent man living in pure nature as hunter-gatherers. The fall of man would correspond to the birth of civilization itself, i.e., man’s change from living in a state of nature to living in organized civilization.
There are several aspects of the Genesis story that arguably support this idea. For example, it is commonly believed that civilization began with man’s domestication of plants and animals. The Bible seems to make reference to this in Genesis, as the initial children of Adam and Eve were Cain, the crop farmer, and Abel, the animal shepherd. There are many other elements of the book of Genesis that seem to parallel the development of civilization. One article I have read specifically states that “Genesis 4 seems to describe the cultural achievements associated with the Neolithic revolution, evidence of which is preserved in archeological sites throughout the Near East.”
There is much more, but I’m trying to keep the original post relatively brief . . . .
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