Re: Origin of Sin & Theodicy [was [asa] Greg Boyd's Theodicy of Natural Evil

David,

I think your idea has merit.? At the time of the earliest source material in Genesis, the Mesopotamian civilization was flourishing because of?its all-important farming and irrigation technology.? That?(rather than particle physics or rockets) was the main way that technology affected culture in those days.? Farming and gardening is also?the main theme of the early parts of Genesis.? So reading the text with this in mind:

First, God told mankind in early Genesis to take dominion over the earth and to rule it, and to cultivate the garden and to keep it.? God not only commanded it, but he put it in our hearts the desire to do it, and hence the "command" is actually describing what kind of creatures we are in contrast to the other animals:? we are profoundy scientists and technologists at heart.? We want to develop farming and the civilization that farming supports.

Second, our ability to do science was harmed by sin.? In the text this is represented by Adam's diminished ability to farm (the ground will bring forth thorns), and further by Cain's utter loss of farming so that he can no longer cultivate the garden or take dominion over the earth.? He is cast out as a wanderer, and hence there can be no cities that farming would have made possible.? So Cain says he?is afraid that he will be killed without the benefits of civilization to protect him.? So indeed science was "taken away" because of his sin.?

Third, we cannot get back to the tree of life because of our sin, and so we must go out East of Eden as sinners. ?We did not emerge from Eden as the glorious scientist/gardeners that we might have, and so the Earth must continue to groan in labor pains waiting for the Sons of God to be revealed later in the redemption.? In the meantime, we eventually do discover farming.? We see this in the text a few verses later when Cain builds a city and names it after his son Unuk (the name of the first major city).? So although mankind was cursed from farming we eventually learned it by our own effort during our wanderings in the land of Nod.? But this human effort to do science apart from God led to even worse violence than Cain's murder of Abel, and this eventually culminated in the Flood.??We see the same theme in the Gilgamesh epic.? The gods send the flood because the workers (slaves) in the field are too noisy (suffering and crying out).? The early Mesopotamian civilization was br
 ooding in its literature over the sinfulness of misused technology, even as we do today.

Phil

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Received on Tue Jul 31 02:30:51 2007