Over at YouTube, “ProMTH” has made a very nice 17-minute video summarizing the Adam and Eve controversy—that is, all the reasons why belief in a literal Adam and Eve, an idea absolutely refuted by modern genetics, is essential for a coherent Christian theology. There’s a lot of stuff here that I haven’t mentioned in our discussions of this issue, especially material from scripture, so if you want a full take on the issue, you can’t do better than watching this:
h/t: Luke
Great ! Thanks Luke & also JAC (?) for posting
BTW it’s “ProfMTH” ~ his is one fine channel
One of ProfMTH’s favourite quotes: “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware”
(Henry Miller)
17 minutes? ProMTH needs to work on brevity.
Missing in the entire discussion is the question of why on Earth it makes any sense to cling to any of this at all.
I mean, really. Haven’t we grown up old enough to not need our imaginary friends any more?
Cheers,
b&
To interpret the Adam and Eve story naturalistically it can be seen as a myth designed to illuminate an important observation about the world. It is likely that for thousands of years before the Christian era, it was noticed that human society differed from that of the animals in that we had civilization and moral codes. We humans experience angst, guilt and worry about our responsibility to others in community. We blush when embarrassed. As myths have always done, there was a need to try to explain why this condition existed. Humanity needed a “just so” story. The story of Adam and Eve is an attempt to personify a hypothetical process of human transformation from a supposed ancestral age when things were simpler. The moral codes that ensure society’s solidarity were not needed when we lived, like the innocent animals. The tree of knowledge perhaps is a way for ancient priests to explain that we were once innocent as the animals but then became self-conscious, competitive, and capable of guilt and shame for social transgressions. We would now say our human capacity for understanding ourselves and our moral problems evolved, but without such a concept of evolution, the tidy tale of the Garden seemed necessary. I suspect many early cultures had similar myths to entertain, inform, and to reassure.
The myth is harmless and charming, except in the hands of those who don’t know what a myth is.
…except, of course, that this simply isn’t the case. Not even vaguely the case if you squint at it the right way.
Even social insects have moral codes, where shirkers and leachers get shunned while sharing is remembered and rewarded.
Actually, if you read the myth, it’s about a neglectful and abusive single father who evicts his deathly ill young children because his deadbeat babysitting brother dared them to drink the infectious bioweapon the father left in a juice bottle in the ‘fridge — and yet, inexplicably, the father is cast as the heroic righteous victim and the kids get all the blame. Hardly harmless or charming.
Cheers,
b&
Ben:
‘Even social insects have moral codes, where shirkers and leachers get shunned while sharing is remembered and rewarded.”
You are right, of course, B&. Social insects have moral codes. As you know the difference resides in the fact that insects hold to their instincts. Humans are more freewheeling and obstinate when it comes to expected behavior.
Look at it from the point of view, say 20,000 years ago, of tribal man struggled with the conflicts in societal living. A bride needs a dowry, a hunter needs a hunting ceremony, a hated relative needs respect, without a tattoo you are nobody. They probably viewed the animals around them as living without the kind of restraints a human society requires. Why follow the directions of the shaman priest? Why respect your neighbor’s property as the law requires? Why follow tradition? Why must I do as my tribe has done for generations? From this perspective, we might hypothesize, mankind felt an explanation is required. Mythology, like the story of Adam and Eve, repeated generation after generation, provides a societal matrix. A needed explanation to indoctrinate the young into the social norms of society, and to settle disputes, etc.
People must have felt they were different than the lions and antelope. We think about our behavior, we consider alternatives, we do not just act out our base urges. Our wisdom is a blessing in that it gives us enormous creativity and opportunity for understanding and appreciation of the world and our place in it. Yet, it also exacts a cost. We must conform. We wish to be worthy in our own eyes and the eyes of our tribe. Much is demanded of us as social and intelligent animals.
This, I think, is what much of mythology is about. It tries to reconcile our inner and outer selves in culture. The id and ego. What is my role in social life, from birth to death. Adam and Eve were stand-ins for mankind’s long journey from those unconscious early times, to the time we became self aware.
“the kids get all the blame. Hardly harmless or charming.”
That’s what I mean by in the hands of those who don’t know what a myth is.
Well, the “don’t know what a myth is” would include virtually all christians. It seems that you’re presenting a myth to explain christians following myth as reality.
(With credit to Garner Ted Armstrong)
Amazing, we agree!
I don’t think this really is a problem for those who want to read the Bible literally. I can imagine a simple response: “Isn’t it wonderful that science just keeps showing how awesome is our God! Not only did God miraculously cause beneficial mutations to occur in Adam and Eve’s offspring at an astronomical rate, but He did it again after the great flood!”
ProfMTH has just uploaded a 5:21 video ‘extension’ to the Adam’n’Eve video: A “Deeper Meaning”?
Initially, creation stories are, what? Cosmology? “How we got here”? “Why do we suffer?” But with the invention of the church, it has become the excuse for controlling and bilking the population.
Jerry, can you possibly make your video clips also available on VUClip? Most Blackberry users cannot access Youtube with their free data packages. Keep up the good work. A Twitter fan in South Africa (where you all come from) – RESPECT
The one serious problem I have with all this is that is only addresses christianity – which both judaism and islam have treated as crap from the beginning (for different reasons.) While portions of it apply very well to all of the abrahamic religions, like the genetic angle, it doesn’t address the overall problems with both creation and the role of humans within. But perhaps that’s another video 😉
A smaller quibble, I think:
Those actually educated in evolutionary biology can correct me, but this is not absolutely necessary, is it? Convergence can also produce such, as I understand it.
(subscribing)