I am not trying to prove anything from what I am about to say. For me there is nothing that is provable at the moment. I don’t do belief. This is just trying to make a bit more sense of what I used to believe and asking the questions that I would like to have asked when I was going along.
Assuming it is not a myth and looking into some of the implications, has anyone thought about the Genesis account like this before.
The point I am about to make will mean that the biblical account of Genesis is not exactly true, or, has been tampered with. But considering that the account in the bible is very minimal may mean that this theory might be a little more plausible.
Anyway, I have wondered why it was that the creator only made a little part of the world the "paradise" and didn’t make the whole globe into a "paradise". The answer from JW’s is that it would have given man a job to do and keep him occupied for a few years. That is not a bad answer I suppose, but it wouldn’t have taken that long, in the spectrum of eternity, to achieve that goal and then need other things to do. But if it was just to keep man occupied then why not make Adam cultivate the "field" himself into Eden? But he didn’t and there was a ready made "paradise" waiting for him.
Then there is the issue of the "trees of temptation". Why were they there? Why would a creator have to test his "perfect" creation? Did he not trust what he had made? And there are other questions. How could a god see that the creation was "good" when there is so much evil in the works that he created? Some of creation is so very perturbing to say the least, and I have tended till now only to look at the evil of creation, and took my focus off of what is made very well and beautiful. But I only look at the evil as a response of the fact that the good has been over played from the religious perspective. But evil is there and doesn’t work in with a god of love and also doesn’t fit in with the ideal way that humans would like the world to be, although some might not agree.
So this is the thought that I came up with. Could it be that the rebellion with Satan was already in full swing during the creation of the earth? When you read the bible the "star character" of evil has tried to destroy the creation all throughout the bible. He took out Adam, and then killed his son that should have fathered the "promised seed". Then he went out to corrupt the world by the "angles" that left heaven, and the earth had to be destroyed. Almost as soon as Noah had walked out of the ark there was Babel etc etc….. And all throughout he was trying to kill the means of salvation but was thwarted at every attempt.
But if this was the situation that was going on before man was ever on the earth it would explain away a few things that we ascribe to god as the maker of "all" things. Before the flood the world was full of giant men that needed to be destroyed. What would stop it being the same thing happening with the dinosaurs? They were wiped out a few times it seems, but was that the same thing happening back then, that Satan was trying to destroy things before man was ever put on the planet? And is the evil we see in creation due to his manipulation, and not gods doing at all….?
It would also explain why there was a test for man as soon as he was created. God would not have needed to test man but it was the demand of Satan that he was tested, as in the story of Job. It would also explain why the garden was so small, the only part of earth at that time that god was intervening in. The rest of the world at that time, the "field" as Genesis puts it, was in Satan’s control. That being the case, it would stand to reason why creation was so evil; being that Satan was manipulating the creation made, therefore the evil in creation was not gods doing at all. He made it good, Satan sabotaged it. This would explain why the Genesis account distinguishes the "wild beast of the field" and places them outside of the "garden" before Adam sinned. Adam after he sinned was banished to the "field" where life was not so cosy, and where the "wild beast of the field" already was. If he would have made the right choice and passed the test, then Eden would have gone all over the world and the evil in creation would have deceased.
So it might be that we are ascribing the blame on god not knowing the full story, as in the case of Job. The interesting thing about Job is when Satan was hitting him, the blame was put to god. The fire out of heaven was described as " the very fire of God", although in that story it was Satan. When you look at the way that the comforters reasoned, it was always said that "God must have done it for some good reason", not accounting for Satan and what he was getting up to.
There are a lot of implications that come from viewing it this way, like why did god let Satan do such evil and not do anything about it. Those debates go on and on. But I would like to know if anyone else has looked at it from the view above and has anything further to add to it.
This is not out to prove the bible because it doesn’t. This is assuming there is any truth in the account and what might be a more plausible explanation. There are many other points and implications that I have not put in but I think this covers what I wanted to say….