Paradise is in New Scotland? . . . of course! . . . the genetic memory of my Scottish heritage confirms this.
Actually I believe what shamus said is essentially true . . . it's all about perception.
But the purpose of the OP was to demonstrate how ancient perceptions 12,000 years old, can lay the groundwork for fundamentalist views today. After all, apocalyptic religious groups today are often found perpetuating a mythical future based on these perceptions. Although the connections are loosly hypothetical, they still fit neatly with the known facts . . . and therefore it still adds some perspective.
By todays standards . . . the ancient views of a "Garden of Eden" would likely fall well short of what we might consider a "paradise"