Ironic, then, that it’s also where Darwinism was born
this post was submitted on 05 May 2024
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Charles Darwin did not create the idea of social Darwinism, though. He suggested the biological evolution of species over time. People often pair the two ideas together because his last name is part of the word “Darwinism”.
IIRC there are theories that Eden refers to a location near where the Tigris and Euphrates meet.
Something about a line mentioning three rivers and there being a river that joins the combined river shortly after it merges.
I just think it'd be funny to imagine that the legendary first home of humanity was somewhere in southern Iraq or Kuwait.
I just think it'd be funny to imagine that the legendary first home of humanity was somewhere in southern Iraq or Kuwait
No one tell this guy about 6th grade geography.
Mesopotamia is merely the first place civilization developed, not the place humanity originated from
There's a field that was called Gu-edin (meaning "open fields") in the mid third millennium BCE that was the subject of a border war that lasted a couple centuries, between the cities of Lagash and Umma (which is right where you said), because the founder of Lagash bought an unassuming piece of land from Umma and a bunch of surrounding terrains, and then did mad irrigation work and it became crazy fertile. According to Lagash's records, Umma got mad that it was swindled out of such great land and kept attacking Lagash over it, and kept getting its ass kicked and its kings killed. People from Umma were "allowed" to till the field for Lagash for a time, but most of the grain would still go to Lagash, causing more revolts from Umma (and more punishment).
It's fairly agreed that this place probably gave some degree of inspiration for "Eden", along with some rare green gardens in the region created with irrigation work. The apple bit, the woman rib bit, and the knowledge bit came from other Sumerian myths.
I'm not sure if it's the Galapagos, maybe in the Canaries instead?, but some island famous for its apples, weather, and safety did play a part in inspiring the myth of Avalon, the island of apples.
There's no mention of apples in the biblical record, just "fruit"
Right, the Inanna myth where she learns about sex also talks about eating the herbs and trees on a mountain / highland, I'm not sure when Eden was associated with an apple.
This is a/the part of the Bible (Genesis 2) people reference to support that belief:
10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel*: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
*Ostensibly Tigris
One of the most heavily edited books based on old Sumerian fables just happens to base itself around what was ancient Sumer.
Wow.
Yeah, its 4 rivers, and to the best of my knowledge, biblical scholars have basically given up on trying to associate 4 rivers and the place names given with any actual real location.
Either its mythical, or some of the place names just do not linguistically connect with any of the historical record of actual locations.
Same with the 4 rivers. No conclusive evidence of dried up ancient river beds that actually fits.
Basically Eden would have to be... somewhere up river of the Tigris, but the Tigris and Euphrates actually have headwaters in modern day Turkey, and they don't have the same sources.
Most likely the authors went with some kind of local, incorrect lore from Sumer/Akkad/Babylon, or possibly the rivers did at one point actually connect, but no conclusive evidence of that exists.
Christianity stole material from everywhere else, why not an explorers report on the island
You do know that Genesis wasn’t written by Christians do you
Were there people exploring the Galapagos in 1000 BCE?
The Galapagos weren't known to Christians until the mid 16th c. so there's a bit of a timing problem of over a couple thousand years.