It seems obvious that the stories and myths gathered in the Bible were
assembled from immortality and fertility myths which were in common
circulation at that time, that is, about 3000 years ago. Stephen
Oppenheimer, writing in "Eden in the East" notes that many of these same
mythic elements are still to be found in lands stretching from Egypt to
India, Southwest Asia, Melanesia, and America.
This Levantine creation myth is closely allied to other older myths
concerning creation, and as Harris points out, every known culture
expresses social values and religious views through myth (Harris 101). A
clear reference to human creation is in the Austronesian cultures of
Southeast Asia where the idea of creation from clay or red earth is also
used "as totemic prop for mythic drama" (Oppenheimer 356).
Work Cited:
Oppenhiemer, Stephen, M.D., "Eden in the East." London: Phoenix, 1998
On 10/19/2013 11:56 AM, [email protected] wrote:
According to the Orthodox, "Ancestral Sin" caused the reversal of
paradisaical deathlessness by creating the consequential mortality
that we all inherited. Obviously a mythologized explanation but this
is how they explain why humans are prone to concupiscence and deviance
of will.
Better yet is this explanation of the Orthodox view of "original" sin.
http://oca.org/questions/teaching/st.-augustine-original-sin
---In [email protected], <authfriend@...> wrote:
*Thanks, this is great. For the moment, one question: "The expulsion
from the Garden and from the Tree of Life was an act of love and not
vengeance so that humanity would not 'become immortal in sin.'" What
does "immortal in sin" mean, and how would that happen?*
*emptybill wrote:*
Read this and then see if you have questions.
http://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/orthodoxy/articles/ancestral_versus_original_sin
