In relation to the recent thread...If there was only Adam and Eve where did Black folks come from and all the other races??? Whats really going on??

Greetings,
I was reading just last week that some scientists have determined that black did have to be first, and that lighter skin was a mutation. Something about how DNA operates. Then the light mutation also allowed those to live in cooler, then colder climates.
In art history when I took it, no one could explain why African cultures did bronze casting way before Europeans  8)
All other early artifacts and bits of material culture got obliterated by the humid heat.
bets

Hello roger,
we've not met before--greetings.
I meant to refer to the first 'peoples'; I can't get into literal Biblical references.
bets

The old testament has openings and areas of uncertainty about others existing beside Adam and Eve.  For example in Genesis, there is a passage about the sons of gods lying down with the daughters of men.  Other references from way back then give anecdotal reference to other tribes of humans. 

I don't see why the bible has to be taken so literally when it is a book of messages and insights.  To see it as we are all descended from Adam and Eve could be an allusion to the prototypical masculine and feminine, yin and yang which God created.  I doubt even Don will make an argument for us all being traced back to Adam as a great great (add a bunch more) grandfather. 

M

Craig,

You are still one of my favorite posters, despite what Don initially said, and I'm not on the dark side (you know very well).  However, I don't think anyone even devout christians on the board has ever said to take the bible literally in all its aspects.

The talmud in judaism is constantly debated to find new or hidden meanings in the ancient Torah; in Judaism, this constant rethinking and debate is welcomed (as long as it is based deeply in study and the texts).  

In christianity, there are more people who take the bible literally, but you must interpret what you are given.  You have a text written probably by many contributors that is thousands of years old.  Nowhere does it say that the entire bible was dictated by God.  There are stories and parables in the bible, its true.  Almost always the meaning of the stories is what is most important.  I mentioned in Genesis that from Adam and Eve, they then mention that God was displeased that the sons of God were bedding the daughters of man.  What the heck did that mean?  Extra-terrestrials?  Fallen angels?  

We can't interpret every sentence with certainty.  However, the text does contain wisdom.  Can we not appreciate the good book more for its wisdom then its' seeming inconsistencies?  I think so.  I know I do.  These are tales to understand by, commandments to allow people to live together.  And yes the golden rule is thrown in to boot.  

So lighten up on the literal Adam and Eve.  The bible really is tracing God's chosen people back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, all are brought up for their own reasons preceding Abraham.  Adam and Eve's fall from grace for eating from the tree of knowledge is one of the greatest images of all time (the Sistine Chapel's rendering of God banishing them with their heads hanging down).  He then blocked the tree of life  with a flaming sword.  Thus came the christian idea of original sin translated down to humanity.  

One can look at the fall from grace in a more positive way, however.  Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge.  They then knew they were naked; they knew good and evil and had intelligence like God.  The tree of life was witheld from them as they were sent out into the world.  However, man then knows.  He knows there is an eden, and a tree of life.  He knows that he has a special relationship with God.  Perhaps that tree of life is not truly banned from us.  Perhaps, in order to be human, and live in our plane of reality, we had to experience that fall from grace and our subsequent mortality.  

With knowledge of our banishment and Eden, and the tree of Life, God could only have known that man would strive to find those things again one way or another.  It is with this heroic effort and striving that the human race defines itself.  In love, and the desire to be back in Eden with the creator.  In reality, eating from the fruit of the tree of life is the acceptance that our consciousness is primary and endless.  Suddenly, in that realization, the flaming sword disappears, and we are, at last home.

Matthew

Quote:


You see the problem is, when you write something down that happened ages ago, it becomes distorted.

the earlyiest books in the new testament, was written 40 years after christ died. Can you honestly remember exact details of 40 years ago, with pin point accuracy?

Things become distorted, caught in myth and immortalised, with powers beyond that of what really occured.

I want you, and everyone else to tell me what they think this is:



Your own interpretation, can mingle the facts, and ultimatley act as a form of chinese whispers.

You saw a lightning strike, you saw a huge storm with hundreds of bolts of lightning coming down, you saw a hand through lightning bolts at you, and the full earth shook.

Ultimately, you were a victim of weather. You can test this by reproducing it.

When you reproduce it, it becomes less - then what was once a miracle.

Catch you later matt,

craig

I believe that adam and eve existed but i often wondered were did all the different laungues come from.I mean who spoke the first  english russian german and so on Its a real mystery when you think about it. God bless juditha

Quote:


Languages come from, community life. Someone assigns a name to an object. Point at at - and there you go.

Different community's = different languages.

Bobs your uncle!