title: Sodom Discovered By Archaeologists! w/ Dr. John Bergsma
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDiYb20iAsM
source: Pints With Aquinas

Summary (by undersigned): Archeologists found glazed pottery which a
laboratory determined to be a form of glass created from an atomic bomb
blast, a brief moment of extremely high temperature. Due to the corpses
they found, the researchers concluded that the place was destroyed by a
"heat event" from the sky, at a slanted angle. They found corpses which
where found behind low walls, where the part of the body that would have
been above the wall was no longer there. The "heat event" had vaporized
or melted the upper half of the body.

Comment (trying to make a case that Adam & Eve was also historical)

What do you think of the hypotheses that the Adam & Eve story refers to
the 'neolithic Revolution' (start of farming), and that at first they
where peaceful and took advantage of the benefits, but then they started stealing from each other, causing that culture to go down. The Jewish
year count starts from Adam & Eve (not the beginning of the Earth/Cosmos),
and is now in the year 6 003 (corrected for stay in Egypt mistake by the Rabbis) or 5784 (commonly accepted), which is roughly when archeology
also says farming / settled living started. It also matches that if you
started to learn farming, you forget how to live as a hunter gatherer,
and then if you culture is in trouble for example due to a change in
climate, you could be forced to work extremely hard to survive.

Therefore I think it may be a similar story as with the Vikings, in
whose mythology they said the world was created out of a cow, which may
be a mangled and distorted version of how they started keeping cows
and this created a new world for them (which it would have). Another
similar creation myth story came from native Indians in south America,
who said they where born from a corn knob (or some such), which may be
a mistranslation and somewhat distorted ancient knowledge that their
culture also completely changed and started in a new way, a birth,
when they started farming.

We have to keep in mind that these people did not read or write, they did
not have a library about everything that happened before they started
farming and keeping animals. They could not read about what their
ancestors did or where they came from, 5000 years before them, or 30
000 years before them. They just live in 'the now', and they only have
their thoughts they happened to have. Since they no longer understood
hunter gathering as well as before or at all, they had less relation
anymore to what it could have meant that their ancestors where not where
they where. If they had been hunter gatherers, they may have understood
that their ancestors where roaming around like them, and how you do that
and what it means. Once you are settled and farming and keeping animals (apparently these activities where mostly separately done by different villages, one documentary claimed), the hunter gathering activity becomes
like a black void.

You may understand your great great great grandfather started building
this house here, and over there was his field, and so on, and to know
that they came there, but what did they do and how did they survive
and live before they get there, more or less becomes part of the lost
knowledge of hunter gatherer living (FWIK this was a Scientific argument
or hypotheses, that once you started farming you loose hunter gathering
ability quickly, it is not something I make up now). "They came here
... but how we don't know, we don't understand." It is a new creation,
and also in the minds of these people I can imagine that it was a new
start of living, it was like as a people they where born to a new world
(of settled life, farming and animal keeping), and before that time it
was increasingly an incomprehensible unknown. Thus the creation stories,
that this was a new creation, which indeed it was. The stories then are
told in a possibly simpler language, and by telling and retelling they
loose some of their accuracy, until we get where we are: Adam & Eve lived
in the Garden of Eden, all was well until they where enticed to _steal_
a fruit from a tree that was claimed by someone else.

You also saw this effect in the Mesopotamian culture (IIRC), where at
first there is equality between the people and they worked together
on their irrigation systems, but later the society differentiates into
slaves and abusers (as I see it). Also the first fixed houses found, where apparently all the same houses, and only later you get the differentiation between rich and poor. This may be an effect of where a culture starts
out as equals, because from a hunter gatherer life everyone has as much
wealth as they can carry, and even if they may be strong while in the
peak of their power, everyone gets old and was once young, so what does
it even mean. Settled life changed these things and you get passive
positions of power more easily, especially a fixed claim on land. The
cultures then disintegrate under internal strife, violence, stealing
war and other abuse, including the depletion of nature in the area.

All in all you have a set of clues which seem to match the Adam & Eve
story quite closely, very closely in my opinion, too close to just be
brushed off as a coincidence. Keep in mind also that the stories for
these people is all they have in terms of history, the stories is the
highest form of history keeping and knowledge they have. The stories are incredibly important for these people, quite unlike today where anyone
can write a novel purely on fantasy. Even not long ago, or perhaps they
still do it, there where special people who memorized long stories,
and where specially trained to do so. I think it is possible that
this story of the creation in the middle east, which indeed created a
new world which we live in now (and which is going wrong by the way),
was at some point written down and by whatever events ended up in the
Genesis book of the Torah.

The point of the stories was often morality, and this is still part
of that story. People should not steal. America should not steal the
Arab oil, or the lands of Europe in the second world war, or try to
foist a Nazi regime upon Ukraine, and all the evil they do. Likewise,
the Russians should not want to control other people's land either,
and so on and so forth. These wars which humans are fighting, are wars
of stealing, of uncontrolled evil greed. This is why this world is going
to destroy itself, and why the Adam & Eve story isn't merely interesting
for history, but still a moral story which humans need to understand
and live by. If they don't, they will be destroyed, probably soon. This
madness on Earth cannot continue. The bombs are getting too big. Science failed. They created toys and bombs, but failed to create the necessary morality and peace to go with this power. Perhaps so it will come true,
that "we will surely die", and we will appreciate that once we have seen
the consequences of the next great war, probably a nuclear global war,
merely to serve a tiny power hungry clique of criminals.

P.S.

You would then have to argue that ... https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.2.17?lang=bi&aliyot=0

And God יהוה commanded the Human, saying, “Of every tree of
the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge
of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat
of it, you shall die.”

End quote. ... "as soon as you eat of it, you shall die" has a more
poetic meaning of something like: when you start stealing, you are on
your way to death, or when you start stealing and thus murdering and
warring, you will eventually die out.

We later in the story see that God banned Adam & Eve from the "Garden
of Eden", and they will have to till the land to survive. Hence the
humans are not killed immediately, even though God could have done so,
and we could conclude from that, that "you will surely die" may have
meant something different than eating that fruit and immediately falling
down dead.

https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.3.22-23?lang=bi&aliyot=0

And God יהוה said, “Now that humankind has become like any
of us, knowing good and bad, what if one should stretch out a hand
and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!”
So God יהוה banished humankind from the garden of Eden,
to till the humus from which it was taken: it was driven out;
and east of the garden of Eden were stationed the cherubim and
the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.

End quote. It seems that this does not fit the interpretation entirely
as here proposed, because it says here 'to till the humus' only when
they get out of the 'Garden of Eden', whereas the argument earlier was
made that the 'Garden of Eden' may already have been a state of farming
/ animal keeping. It is interesting to note that it reads 'Garden of
Eden, to till the humus from which it was taken'. Apparently the Garden
of Eden was taken from the humus, implying it is about plants (as it
also explicitly talks about plants, such as trees), because plants grow
from humus. This could then include the 'forbidden tree', which then
actually was a tree. It was a literal tree, having literal fruit, which
seemed tasty to eat. This fits well with an interpretation that it is
about stealing, and that stealing creates evil, war and death, and also
creates the knowledge of both good and evil (especially the latter).

In this interpretation, God then says that they (God) already know about
good and evil, which I suppose makes sense, because after all He is the
Creator and so how could he not know. The animals are also plenty at war
with each other, and in that sense it is nothing new.

What the 'Tree of Life' is supposed to be, I have no idea. It is good to
keep in mind that this is merely an interpretation, to focus the whole
thing on stealing from another, also to make it actionable for us modern humans. Meaning that we have to stop stealing, if we want to get back
into paradise, and to get rid of this vague and incomprehensible talk
like "The original sin came into the world, and humans are suffering
ever since." Maybe I'm too stupid to realize that this was "obviously
about stealing" for everyone else already, but it was not clear to me.
"We have the original sin because of Eve." is something I cannot do
anything about and it means nothing. What can I help it ? What is it
even about. Not a clue. If it is about stealing however, now we have
something which is still present in todays culture everywhere, from the
shop lifter to the Government invading and defeating entire Continents
to add it to their Empire and try to suck money out, to the private
Central Banks printing money like maniacs to centralize control over
the entire world and make us all into their slaves. To focus the whole
thing on stealing, it seems to make sense. Crime is first about
stealing, the rest becomes the art of evil around it, including murder
and war, the 'knowledge of evil' if you will.

Markets in land are also a form of land stealing. This becomes clearer
later in the Torah, where Moshe Rabbeinu is given to set laws for all
to have a right to land, and prohibits land sale in perpetuity. I see
from this that land markets are a form of stealing, stealing the right
to free use and access to land for other people who will end up with
nothing soon. The Torah becomes an effort to get Israel back into
paradise, and make them stop stealing, so they can live. You could see
it as an attempt by God, to get humanity back into paradise, and prevent
their eventual death. You can see today with the war which is looming,
already started, the size of the bombs and the potential for a high technological Dystopian Tyranny, that indeed humanity is destroying
itself, and if this goes on it may eventually be better for humanity to
die. Hence it becomes true: you will surely die, if you go this way.
God then attempts to get Humanity back, by sending the Torah. Israel
listens to a degree, but not enough. Did I mention the prozbul yet in
this posting ? ;-) It is of course also stealing, especially when held
against the standard of the Torah.

To get back into paradise is to let the forbidden fruit hanging where it
is. Incidentally you see laws of the first fruit of trees, which are
supposed to be left alone for several years, in the Torah, which are
basically an exact match for the story of Adam & Eve. Israel is again
told: do not eat from these forbidden fruits, almost as if it is a
training in not stealing. How real this is: I have fruit trees on my
land, which I recently replanted, and thus under the Torah law the
fruits should not be eaten for several years. Two of these trees are
figs, and someone commented that they literally had to force themselves
not to grab those tasty looking figs, which I left hanging until they
opened and fell off rotting to the ground. The person in question even illustrated his feeling by holding his hand up, and grabbing it with the
other and pulling it back.

He did not steal the forbidden fruit, it was not his tree, even though
the fruit looked tasty. Perhaps this means there is hope for humanity.
If we just stopped stealing, everyone would have what they needed, and
we could live. It could be that simple.

*

Well, it makes sense (to me), so there you go. Sometimes things that
make sense are in the end not true, but I don't see a better factual
or moral explanation and use of the story for now. Have a great day,
sorry to belabor the point.

--
Economic & political ideology, worked out into Constitutional models,
with a multi-facetted implementation plan. http://market.socialism.nl

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