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Is the Garden of Eden in South Africa?

Wandering Monk

Well-Known Member
Nevertheless you should not trust this data.
Science also says that mankind and the earth are over millions of years old. Although the Bible says that we are in the year about 5500. Science also says that there was no worldwide flood, the Bible says there was. Science also says that we humans and monkeys have a common ancestor, the Bible of course does not say that.
Science contradicts the Bible in many ways.

facepalm.jpg
 

Guitar's Cry

Disciple of Pan
Yeah, what's with that anyway? It must reflect the culture of the time; keepin' it all in the family.

.

It is likely due to importance of reproduction for ancient cultures and certain innate response mechanisms to outbreeding and inbreeding.
 

Etritonakin

Well-Known Member
Chapter and verse?
If I have time.... meanwhile... If Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel -that is four people -Cain would not have worried about other people killing him -nor could he have found a wife.
....you can easily find these references in Genesis
"Adam was simply the first to be made with the potential to live forever -in the image and likeness of God.
Cain was worried what people who found him would do to him -and he also found a wife outside of Eden.
This is also a more logical explanation for the distinction between the "sons of God" and the "daughters of men"
 

Prometheus85

Active Member
What do you think about the theory that says that the Garden of Eden is in South Africa?

Interestingly, some old maps inscribe the Southernmost Africa with a ring, from which four rivers emerge.
http://www.myoldmaps.com/late-medieval-maps-1300/240-albertin-de-virga-world/240-de-virga.pdf

What do you think?


A mythical birthplace of all humanity, and a metaphorical place of perfect innocence has little value. As a literal account of the early days of humanity it does not make much sense. Much of the exegesis Surroundings the story makes even less sense.
 

sooda

Veteran Member
A mythical birthplace of all humanity, and a metaphorical place of perfect innocence has little value. As a literal account of the early days of humanity it does not make much sense. Much of the exegesis Surroundings the story makes even less sense.

Depends where you believe Havilah was located.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
What do you think about the theory that says that the Garden of Eden is in South Africa?

Interestingly, some old maps inscribe the Southernmost Africa with a ring, from which four rivers emerge.
http://www.myoldmaps.com/late-medieval-maps-1300/240-albertin-de-virga-world/240-de-virga.pdf

What do you think?

It seems the Garden of Eden should still be around guarded by a cherubim with a flaming sword.

How anybody could not miss that is a mystery.

All I can say is that the Garden of Eden never existed , so naturally it would follow that it wasn't anywhere on the planet to begin with.
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
Please prove it to me with the Bible.
What a silly request.

1) Demanding "proof" of anything like this is quite unreasonable, The best anyone can do is offer evidence;

2) Absence of evidence from the bible (that it described a Middle-Eastern scenario) would in no way be evidence in favour of this daft S. African hypothesis;

3) The people who wrote the bible would not have been aware they were living in a particular part of the world we now call "the Middle East":

4) The Genesis account does, in fact, contain features that echo the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, which includes a Garden of the Gods. More here: Garden of the gods (Sumerian paradise) - Wikipedia

5) The whole story is an allegory anyway. No scholar seriously thinks the Garden of Eden ever physically existed, as a literal place. It describes an idealised state of human existence, i.e. before the Fall.
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
Nevertheless you should not trust this data.
Science also says that mankind and the earth are over millions of years old. Although the Bible says that we are in the year about 5500. Science also says that there was no worldwide flood, the Bible says there was. Science also says that we humans and monkeys have a common ancestor, the Bible of course does not say that.
Science contradicts the Bible in many ways.
Correct. So what this tells us is that is pretty daft to take these biblical stories literally. They are allegories, with a message, but written for the understanding of the people of the time and not necessarily to be taken as literal.

Even the early church fathers knew this. Origen, writing in about 200AD, poured scorn on the notion of a literal Garden of Eden. He saw it as allegorical, reading it in the same way that scholars of his time read the Greek myths.
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
Nevertheless you should not trust this data.

Why would you take the word of men over the objective data of DNA?

Science also says that mankind and the earth are over millions of years old

Science says nothing of the sort.
Humankind (homo sapiens) is some 150-200 thousand years old.
The earth is 4.5 billion.

As per the objective data.


Although the Bible says that we are in the year about 5500

The bible is wrong.

Science also says that there was no worldwide flood, the Bible says there was.

The bible is wrong.

Science also says that we humans and monkeys have a common ancestor,

Because they do. As per the objective data again.

the Bible of course does not say that.

The bible is wrong.

Science contradicts the Bible in many ways.

Indeed.
 

Native

Free Natural Philosopher & Comparative Mythologist
What do you think about the theory that says that the Garden of Eden is in South Africa?

Interestingly, some old maps inscribe the Southernmost Africa with a ring, from which four rivers emerge.
http://www.myoldmaps.com/late-medieval-maps-1300/240-albertin-de-virga-world/240-de-virga.pdf

What do you think?
And:
Pretty silly - probably invented by Calvinist South African religious wingnuts.:D

The Genesis story is clearly from, and about, people living in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East.
AND:
Nope.. Probably in the Bahrain archipelago.. It was called Dilmun and had lots of fresh water springs.. The clay tablets date back to before Genesis and exodus.
In all cases "God" should once have gone on the Earth, creating the Garden of Eden in the claimed locations?

This surely doesn´t fit the specific story of Creation.
 
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ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Nevertheless you should not trust this data.
Science also says that mankind and the earth are over millions of years old. Although the Bible says that we are in the year about 5500. Science also says that there was no worldwide flood, the Bible says there was. Science also says that we humans and monkeys have a common ancestor, the Bible of course does not say that.
Science contradicts the Bible in many ways.

Science does not say mankind is over a million years old so you are wrong there

Science also says the earth is over 4 billion years old so technically you are correct, it s over a million years old, much older

Where does the bible say earth or mankind is 5500 years old, verse please

The evidence is overwhelming that there was no world wide flood, and of course a world wide flood as described in the bible is impossible on so many levels

This is a tricky one, science does not really say we evolved from a common ancestor of monkeys but of apes, you should learn the difference. Although in the far longer term, all mammals evolved from a common ancestor.

There is a good reason that evidence, observation, measurement etc contradicts faith and guesswork.
 

calm

Active Member
The rivers named in the Bible are specific and put the Garden of Eden in the what is known as the fertile crescent.
Well, the names might have changed.
Here is a very old map which at least proves that today's "Nile" was called "Tigris" then.
https://lib-dbserver.princeton.edu/...ebsites/africa/maps-central/1603 ortelius.jpg
So how do you know the names are reliable?

And why are all the animals that were in the Eden Garden not in the Middle East but in Southern Africa?
 
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