Originally Posted by Ringman
Originally Posted by DBT
The story of Adam and Eve and the fall makes very little sense, except as a bronze age narrative to explain why the world is the way it is, the existence of hardship and suffering. A story borrowed from older cultures and adapted to suit the cultural and religious needs of the tribe of Israel.


What culture would predate the first man and woman? You choose to believe fairytales instead of sober history.



The point was that the Adam and Eve story was borrowed and adapted from older cultures, not that there was an actual Adam and Eve and Garden of Eden.

''Biblical myths are found mainly in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. They are concerned with the creation of the world and the first man and woman, the origin of the current human condition, the primeval Deluge, the distribution of peoples, and the variation of languages. The basic stories are derived from the popular lore of the ancient Middle East; parallels can be found in the extant literature of the peoples of the area. The Mesopotamians, for instance, also knew of an earthly paradise such as Eden, and the figure of the cherubim....''