I watched a very interesting show last night about the garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve. It suggested that the original sin story was actually a metaphor for our transition from hunter/gathers to agricultural farmers. It also offered up evidence to support a flood story with the melting of glaciers 6000 years ago.

One scholar found connections between the story of Adam and Eve, and the neolithic period when mankind lived in hunter/gatherer societies. He claims the story of how Adam and Eve could just pluck the food they needed from the earth as they needed it sounds very much like a hunter/gatherer way of life. Then, things changed, and mankind discovered agriculture. Of course, by hunter/gatherer standards, farming, or the manipulation of plants and animals for one's own benefit, would have seemed godlike in comparison to simply wandering around and stumbling upon food here and there. On top of that, it would be impossible for the an agricultural society to go back living as a hunter/gatherer society, or the garden of Eden. This doesn't really sound like a sin to me, but perhaps ancient people made a connection between this lifestyle change, and a great catastrophe-- a massive flood.

One scientist claimed that with the use of satellites he discovered two ancient dry riverbeds, one flowing from Saudi Arabia, the other from Iran, that could account for the Bibles talk of four rivers joining into one. He thinks that before the glaciers melted 6000 years ago, the Persian Gulf was just a river, and that these four rivers flowed into it. He believes the area refered to as the garden of Eden existed on the land which is now covered by the Persian Gulf. If this were true, we would now have both a figurative reason to explain why mankind could not return to the garden of Eden (explained above) as well as a literal one-- it's flooded over.

Perhaps ancient people made a connection between their change from to agricultural lifestyle and a terrible flood 6000 years ago caused by melting glaciers. The flood was seen as punishment from the gods for changing from their original hunter/gatherer lifestyle. Of course, once making the transition to an agricultural society, they can never go back because a hunter/gatherer society can't support them any longer. Therefore, all they could do was go on with it and hope for forgiveness. The documentary doesn't suggest these ideas. They are my own, which I deduced from the information presented.

__________________
WARNING: In the unlikely event of an accidental agreement with any or all points made in the above post, contact a clinical psychologist immediately.

The views expressed in the above post are not necessarily those of Joker and/or any of his affiliates.

"You have found the secret message. Do you have too much time on your hands? ...Let it go."