Garden of Eden

by Onager 21 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • Onager
    Onager

    Where is the garden of Eden?

    I don't mean where in the world, I mean where in history.

    Adam and Eve get booted out of this place. A place which is not only a pretty nice place to live, but it has a tree in it which gives you everlasting life.

    Yes it's guarded by angels and levitating fiery swords, but surely people would have been trying to get in and get the fruit? The garden and the tree of life just disappear out of the narrative, almost like it was a fable.

    If there was an actual Eden with an actual tree of life in it then surely the history of humanity would have been one of desperately trying to break back into Eden?

    Yes, ok, maybe the angels defending the garden might have been a bit trigger happy and killed those that tried but I bet you that every generation would at least raise one hero who would try and reach the prize. If such a place existed.

    Thinking about it. What does the tree of life do in the story? God creates the garden of Eden and puts the tree of life and the tree of knowledge in it. The tree of knowledge has its fruit eaten by Adam and Eve, but no-one eats the tree of life's fruit. It's created and disappears without fulfilling any purpose at all.

    The only place you see ridiculously powerful artefacts appear and then disappear like this is in badly written fiction where the hero in book one finds the sword of ultimate power but then in book two has to lose it again otherwise he would have it too easy.

  • Researchedandenlightened
    Researchedandenlightened

    Roughly the same area as Peter Pans Neverland ?

  • Researchedandenlightened
  • dothemath
    dothemath

    There's lots of mythical elements to the Eden story. Would Adam have had a sword, or known what a sword was? How long would it take to name all the animals, especially ones found on other continents?

    Virtually every JW book ever published contains the argument that "if only Adam and Eve had passed the test, we would all be perfect". Really? Do you think every single human from then on would be faithful forever? (Even angels didn't all remain on God's side)

    Not to mention the timeline, 6000 years? There's so much evidence of humans predating that year by a huge margin.

    The reasoning is that the Flood wiped out Eden, but I better not get started on that.

  • tiki
    tiki

    It was a banana tree, but it lost its magical powers. So now you can eat bananas and stay a sinner.

  • Onager
    Onager

    Ah, the flood destroyed the garden. Of course! :)

    That still leaves two thousand years of human history (Eden to flood) where humans could have tried to get to the fruit though. The prize is eternal life for crying out loud! Surely Adam and all his descendants would be camped out in front of the garden, desperately trying to find a way in. We would have tales, passed down into history, of the hero Zog who managed to get over the wall but was mauled by a vegetarian lion inches away from the tree.

    I guess my point is the Eden story has all the characteristics of a fable. And if it is a fable (which it is) then the fall of man is allegorical (not true) and the ransom sacrifice is not required and all Christian religions are no more valid than a Harry Potter fan club.

  • scratchme1010
    scratchme1010

    Where is the garden of Eden?

    It never existed.

  • Vidiot
    Vidiot

    Geographically, somewhere in Iraq.

  • schnell
    schnell
    I guess my point is the Eden story has all the characteristics of a fable. And if it is a fable (which it is) then the fall of man is allegorical (not true) and the ransom sacrifice is not required and all Christian religions are no more valid than a Harry Potter fan club.

    You know what else has quite seriously all the hallmarks of a fable? The book of Job is riddled with the number 3, just like Goldilocks (3 bears; too hot, too cold, just right...).

    When I tried to explain that this quite seriously means the story of Job never happened that way (without even bothering to say that the story never happened or that it was just a guy who got sick), dubs looked at me like I was growing 2 horns.

  • schnell
    schnell

    To answer the question: Missouri. ;)

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