Richard, do other cultures have a myth about the fall of humanity that centers around acquiring some forbidden knowledge? And in other cultures is the fall blamed on the women?
On Saturday, October 19, 2013 2:04 PM, Richard J. Williams <[email protected]> wrote: 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 > > >
