>If we assume that there were others
>who lived outside the Garden of Eden, why would Adam and Eve not have
>expressed the same fear as Cain?
I think that leaving the confines of this safe haven and the presence
of God would put Cain in contact with potential hostiles. If, as I
suggested, Eridu was the place of the garden and "E-Anna(k)" was the
city that Cain built, the distance was about 50 miles almost due North
and on the other side of the Euphrates river.
>As for "moral degeneration," this would suggest that, at one time, moral
>standards of the "others" was higher. We read in Gen. 1:27 that "God
>created man in his own image" whatever that means. If these "males and
>females" were created "good" (vs. 31), should we then assume that they
>didn't kill each other?
If we equate sin with acts of disobedience, than we can only disobey
when we are given moral guidelines to follow. If Adam was the first
to be accountable then earlier men were not accountable. God's "good
creation" had cannibalistic creatures in it. Still does. But we humans
are now under God's commandments, first through Adam, and then through
Christ.
Dick Fischer, The Origins Solution - http://www.orisol.com
"The answer we should have known about 150 years ago."