Posted by Siamang on: 04.11.2006 /
In one of the threads on the discussion board I commented that I liked the Garden of Eden story, but I read it as a story about evolution. To me, it’s a poetic description of how man stopped being an animal, and started to be a moral being. To make that leap, he gave up innocence, he was aware and ashamed of himself. But upon making the leap, he now was subject to moral judgement.
I don’t actually believe that the ancients who wrote it were literally commenting on evolution any more than the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast comments on it. But I do think it chronicles a time when some people were still hunters and gatherers, out in the wild eden. It took a leap for them to join in the agricultural revolution, the first big leap toward civilization.
I wonder if other people have Bible stories they appreciate from a secular perspective. Believers and non-believers, do you have bible stories that you appreciate more from a secular reading than from a faithful reading?
Song of Solomon comes to mind, surely even some believers can appreciate the sex….er…secular reading of that!
Comment by: TXatheist
1Give me your tired, your hungry and your poor. To me that sets a good precedent of giving to the less fortunate.
Comment by: Stephan
2I love the story of Esther. It’s got sex, violence, mystery, suspense, revenge, and (for you Atheists) not a single metion of God in the whole book! I’m surprised this has not been made into a movie.
I also like the stories where the religious leaders tried to trap Jesus with a tough question. He always had a way of turning it back on them. He totally messed with their heads.
Comment by: Julie Marie
3The story of Job also has secular value, as it demonstrates how not to comfort a friend in distress.
Job had lost his home, his livestock, his family, and his health. His friends find him sitting on an ash heap scratching his painful boils with a shard of broken pottery. Job, formerly prosperous, is now a broken man who wishes he was never born.
About the only thing the friends did right was sit with him in silence for a week. After that, they started examining him and his life for a cause of his suffering. They start offering up their opinions on how to improve the situation. This isn’t a comforting approach! Sometimes we humans are our own worst enemies, and indeed, our plight is a direct result of our foolishness. But sometimes, bad things just happen. This is most obvious when children are hurt, but plenty of painful stuff happens to adults that can’t be explained away by a “well they brought this on themselves.” In either case, a hurting human needs to know someone cares. Someone with the strength of heart to listen to the hurt and anguish, without speculating as to cause.
Sometimes there is nothing we can do to make things better. It’s important to realize there is value in our presence, so that our hurting friends know they are not alone in the world, and that we care enough to sit with them.
Comment by: Ir
4Since you mentioned Adam and Eve, I think it’s fascinating how Christians traditionally have seen the snake as ‘bad’ but some other people interpret the snake as good - as initiating a step of progress for Adam and Eve.
I think a lot of the lessons I learned in Bible study aren’t exclusively applicable to Christians. Such as - a person’s behavior can have far-reaching consequences. That’s one from Adam and Eve and lots of other places in the Bible!
Comment by: Jim Henderson
5I like I Corinthinans 13 - The Message Translation
Most people have heard this read at weddings
It is the one that says Love is patient, Love is Kind etc etc
Since the bible also tells us that the “controlling metaphor” of god is Love (I John somewhere)- I take that as permission to substitute the word love with god
Reading it that ways makes for a very interesting reframe of God
Comment by: Mike C
6I don’t think that’s from the Bible. I think it’s from the Statue of Liberty.
Too bad our nation is now in the process of re-writing that to “Give me your tired, your hungry and your poor… so we can ship them back where they came from.”
Sorry, didn’t mean to get political all of a sudden. ;)
Comment by: Cully
7Yes, that would be from Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus”
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“”Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!”" cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Comment by: Mike C
8Wow, what a great reminder in the midst of all this debate over immigration. How amazing would it be if there ever really was a nation that measured it’s greatness by its compassion for the poor and weak, rather than its wealth and power?
IMHO, the kingdom of God is supposed to be that nation.
Thanks for sharing the poem.
Comment by: Tom E
9As far back as I can remember, I’ve viewed the Garden of Eden story in terms of cosmological and anthropological evolution. Since my college days, though, I’ve also enjoyed interpreting it in terms of individual psychological development. That is, I enjoy reading it as the story of how Adam (as “everyman”) and Eve (as “everywoman”) experience the process of differentiation and individuation (as well as moral conscience development ) from early childhood through adolescence. For each of us, paradise was in the womb and (for some) at our mother’s breast. Then came potty training and it’s all been down hill from there… That’s when roller coaster rides get fun, right?
Comment by: David S
10I like the poetry of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. And the Byrds song.
Comment by: Esther
11Jim Henderson shared this:
Wow, Jim, I have never thought of substituting “God” into the word “love” there!!
How brilliant! Thank you.
You know I’ve been beating up on myself a lot whenever I’ve thought of this passage.
I felt so guilty for I cannot love my ex-husband with the love described here.
But now it’s all clear!! Yes, I think you are right, Jim. We human may not be able to attain this kind of love, but God can.
Yes, that’s all making sense now.
And I have to admit that I’ve been experiencing this kind of love from God all of my life!
Comment by: TXatheist
12Thank you Mike, it was a spin on the current immigration issue. I’ve always like the slogan but you are absolutely correct, it’s not biblical. Good job if I may say so.
Comment by: NCxian
13The story of Ruth and Naomi is one that I have heard all my life and is quite beautiful. However, it is a little bit hard to pick through the ancient inheritance stuff when you try to read it straight from the Bible.
I guess it might also be a story about immigration. Naomi immigrates to Moab, her son marries Ruth, her husband and son die, the widow Ruth immigrates to Judah with her mother-in-law, the widow Naomi. And the moral of the story is about “family” commitment, even when you are from different places and have no legal obligations to each other. I don’t know–that will take some more thought. Any OT scholars out there?
Comment by: Julie C.
14The Ruth story is also about what it looks like when the Jewish Law is actually kept. Boaz (Ruth’s eventual husband) honors the Law by leaving the excess gleanings from his fields for the poor and the widows like Ruth to live off of as was commanded in the Torah. It’s an example of social justice and compassion for the poor. And it’s a lesson for us as well in 21st century America. In a land of such and abundance and overindulgence, how often to we think about sharing our excess with those who have nothing?
Oops, but there I go preaching again… ;)
Comment by: Mike C
15Oops, and there I go posting under my wife’s name again… that last post was by me.
Sorry,
Mike
Comment by: ackley
16Great job guys…