Richard Book is Innocent (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
oxfordtweed) wrote2010-08-03 03:47 am
oxfordtweed) wrote2010-08-03 03:47 am
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Charles Darwin in the Book of Genesis
Ryan will occasionally leave articles and web pages up for me to find when I wake up. Sometimes, I think he does it just to annoy me, but for the most part, it's because he knows it's something I'll like.
This is what I woke up to today.
If you've known me for a while, you've probably heard me go on about how Adam and Eve were monkeys. If you haven't heard this little story, I'll tell it now.
I've always maintained that the bible, specifically the book of Genesis, talks of evolution. God creates Adam and Eve, and they live a simple, vegetarian (vegan?) life in the Garden of Eden. God tells them they can eat anything they want in this garden, except from one specific fruit. Okay, fine. Figs and papayas will be just fine. After all, they're tasty, and who doesn't like having an apple with breakfast?
One day, Eve is quietly chowing down when a serpent wiggles up to Eve and says, "Hey, you know that fruit God told you not to eat? I think you should eat it." Because Eve apparently lacked the capacity to resist peer pressure, she ate the fruit. Then she took it to Adam, who also lacked the capacity to resist peer pressure, and then all of a sudden, they realised they were naked.
That's a lovely, simplified Sunday School version, but our teachers always forget to mention the fact that Adam and Eve were monkeys. These monkeys are sitting happy up in the trees, scarfing down papayas and figs and generally spending all day eating, because that's what herbivores do. One day, Eve's sitting under a tree, eating a bunch of fallen fruit when along comes a strange wiggling little critter. It's in amongst the fruit, and may even be a similar colour. Eve, ever curious, picks up this new wiggling fruit and takes a big old bite out of it. It doesn't taste like any fruit she's ever eaten, but it's juicy like one. Whatever it is, she decides that she likes it. Furthermore, she takes it to Adam to show her what she's found. And wouldn't you know, he likes it too.
So now, Adam and Eve are still eating easily-accessible fruit, but now they're starting to go out of their way to find these little wiggly things to eat. Because little wiggly things will hide and bite, they have to start actually thinking about how they're going to go about catch them. Suddenly, they've become predators. As they move on to larger prey, they have to again adapt their hunting techniques. The smarter they get, the bigger the prey they're able to catch. The bigger the prey, the less they have to hunt. But if they want big prey, they have to leave the trees in favour of the plains, where they'll find gazelles and buffalo. Now, they're able to feed their entire family all at once, and for several days at a time. Eventually, they learn how to preserve the meat to make it last weeks or months at a time. This means they can spend a few days hunting, and spend months after that focusing on other things like shelter and warmth -- those things that God had provided in Eden, but which they gave up when they left.
This is what I woke up to today.
If you've known me for a while, you've probably heard me go on about how Adam and Eve were monkeys. If you haven't heard this little story, I'll tell it now.
I've always maintained that the bible, specifically the book of Genesis, talks of evolution. God creates Adam and Eve, and they live a simple, vegetarian (vegan?) life in the Garden of Eden. God tells them they can eat anything they want in this garden, except from one specific fruit. Okay, fine. Figs and papayas will be just fine. After all, they're tasty, and who doesn't like having an apple with breakfast?
One day, Eve is quietly chowing down when a serpent wiggles up to Eve and says, "Hey, you know that fruit God told you not to eat? I think you should eat it." Because Eve apparently lacked the capacity to resist peer pressure, she ate the fruit. Then she took it to Adam, who also lacked the capacity to resist peer pressure, and then all of a sudden, they realised they were naked.
That's a lovely, simplified Sunday School version, but our teachers always forget to mention the fact that Adam and Eve were monkeys. These monkeys are sitting happy up in the trees, scarfing down papayas and figs and generally spending all day eating, because that's what herbivores do. One day, Eve's sitting under a tree, eating a bunch of fallen fruit when along comes a strange wiggling little critter. It's in amongst the fruit, and may even be a similar colour. Eve, ever curious, picks up this new wiggling fruit and takes a big old bite out of it. It doesn't taste like any fruit she's ever eaten, but it's juicy like one. Whatever it is, she decides that she likes it. Furthermore, she takes it to Adam to show her what she's found. And wouldn't you know, he likes it too.
So now, Adam and Eve are still eating easily-accessible fruit, but now they're starting to go out of their way to find these little wiggly things to eat. Because little wiggly things will hide and bite, they have to start actually thinking about how they're going to go about catch them. Suddenly, they've become predators. As they move on to larger prey, they have to again adapt their hunting techniques. The smarter they get, the bigger the prey they're able to catch. The bigger the prey, the less they have to hunt. But if they want big prey, they have to leave the trees in favour of the plains, where they'll find gazelles and buffalo. Now, they're able to feed their entire family all at once, and for several days at a time. Eventually, they learn how to preserve the meat to make it last weeks or months at a time. This means they can spend a few days hunting, and spend months after that focusing on other things like shelter and warmth -- those things that God had provided in Eden, but which they gave up when they left.
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'No, girls, none of it's true. Just a myth. Rest of the bible? Oh, that's true. Just not this bit. Lovely story though!'
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