too bad I’m not going to do it
Who were they?
Did they exist?
What about that snake? Them apples?
Well, there had to have been somebody who was the first human being.[1]
Where was the Garden of Eden? Did it really exist?
Maybe. Who knows. It isn’t that important.
As shown elsewhere, Genesis chapters 1 – 5 are not reliable as accurate scientific/historical accounts.
People who claim they are reliable are typically people who are more comfortable with their preconceptions and would prefer not do any thinking, thank you very much.
A plain text reading of the Bible tells us Genesis 1 – 5 are simply the best account Noah & family could recall after the flood.
Everything recorded probably refers to some event that really did happen, but as to exactly what…who knows?
Christians simply gotta shrug it off as “one of those things we’ll never know in this lifetime” and move on.[2]
The underlying Truth is this:
- God created everything
- Specifically, He created human beings to reflect His own nature (albeit in a lesser, terrestrial degree)
- He was proud of His work and thought it was Very Good
- God told humanity to mate & multiply; He made sex a lotta fun to encourage this
- He told humanity not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
- All humanity had to do to be good was simply Not Eat The @#%&ing Fruit
The Serpent (a.k.a. Satan in many interpretations) told humanity if they ate the fruit, they’d be just like God (as if they already weren’t as much like God as creatures in this Universe can be)
They ate
They realize there was nothing magical/supernatural/reality-altering about the fruit
It could have been anything; it doesn’t matter
It isn’t what the fruit did that changed things…
It’s not what went into them…
It’s what was inside them already that motivated them to give a big F.U. to God
They betrayed the God who had given them everything[3]
And for what?
The vanity of feeling they had put one over on Him
That they had one upped Him
That they were not merely like Him, they were His equals
(Did I mention the human race is stupid in addition to being selfish?)
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[1] Insofar as there had to be (a) one breeding couple somewhere (b) who were the first unique combination of genes that we now call homo sapiens (c) to breed true (i.e., all their offspring had their genes & carried no recessive genes to a previous version of humanity) then yeah, Adam & Eve really existed, no matter what the geneticists claim about a large gene pool, etc. If you get to redefine the goal posts, you can always prove your point -- or disprove your opponents.
[2] As opposed to doubling down on dumb and claiming Genesis 1 – 5 is a literally factual and accurate account of events and that science is wrong, not their ignorant interpretation of Scripture.
[3] They were the first, but certainly not the last; see David