Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002
Re-creating the Garden of Eden
Thomas M. Miovas, Jr.
I watch many specials on the Discovery Channel and the History Channel,
including some recently that attempted to trace stories in the Bible to
real-life events.
One of them was a fascinating story about how archaeologists and geologists
think they have discovered the roots of the story of the Great Flood.
Evidently, the Dead Sea used to be a freshwater lake that became flooded
with the salty waters of the Mediterranean Sea when a natural damn broke
over seven thousand years ago. The people living in the area would have had
to run for their lives and the whole area would have been unusable by man
for the purpose of farming or herding for several thousand years (because
of all the salt washing up on the land). No one seems to know why the
Mediterranean Sea rose all of a sudden, but there has been some speculation
it might have been tied to the explosion of the island of Santorini (?),
which might all be tied to the ancient story of the disappearance of the
"lost continent" and civilization of Atlantis.
One of the other specials was an attempt to find the area named in the
Bible as that of the Garden of Eden. The host gave all his reasoning based
on the geographical clues presented in the Bible, and even found an area
very closely matching those clues. I think he even presented evidence from
far older documents written in cuneiform and Babylonian. As it turns out,
some of the oldest legends of man go back to pre-biblical times. He even
correctly identified the basic conflict of the story as that of man living
with nature as it is (with God) versus man taking control of nature via
farming (against God) -- i.e. the beginning of man becoming civilized by
the use of his own mind.
Putting it all together, he brought the audience into a heightened sense of
awe as he was about to turn the last corner right on camera.
Alas, instead of a beautiful garden, he found a settlement. We can never
return to the Garden of Eden, he said, because mankind has destroyed it.
However, with the magic of special effects, he said the clock could be
turned back and mankind could once again witness Paradise. Behold, a
whirlwind arose smiting all the human domiciles and a beautiful Earthly
Paradise arose!
Now, I'll grant you that the settlement was not very pretty, let alone
beautiful, but that special effects scene brought to my mind the idea that
it is not only the Fundamentalist Muslims that want to take us back to
pre-civilized times, but anyone who has a thirst to return us to a time
when man lived with nature as it is rather than as it could be by the
useful application of man's mind.
Of course, it was man eating from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge that
expelled him from Paradise in the first place -- according to religionists,
anyhow.
