Jeremy Christian's Take on Adam

Yeah, I get that. It’s a heavy subject to be sure.

What I’m speaking about is what’s inferred in the story being told. Think specifically about Genesis 6 and the statement that God “regretted” placing humans on the Earth. I think it often gets overlooked how significant that truly is.

God commands all the universe. He does not experience time like you and I do, as a series of moments, but sees all time from beginning to end all at once. Yet free will in this case did something He did not anticipate and caused Him to “regret” a decision. Like Abraham, though God knows the future, He did not know what Abraham would do until Abraham did it. If Abraham was never put in that situation where he had to choose, then there would be no choice in the future to look to to know. Until Abraham made his decision, God did not know what he’d do. That’s free will.

What is eternity without free will? If we’re all just drones who can only behave according to God’s will? What is life if not your own? Free to make your own decisions and persuits according to your own likes and desires?

Now, in that context, what is free will in eternity? A billion different wills, all wanting different things, all interacting. Just like in this life. There’s constant conflict. There must be rules to achieve order.

Belief in God, in Jesus, is a willful acknowledgment that God is indeed the authority. If you don’t first of your own free will acknowledge God as the authority, then you cannot pass through and participate in eternity. Like the rules of the road, we’re each free to go where ever we wish, but there are rules in place to make sure we don’t just ram into each other constantly. To drive, you must be licensed. To be licensed you must show that you acknowledge the rules of the road and the authority that enforces them. So we’re free, but because we don’t exist in a vacuum, there must be rules. Because it’s a free will, you must willfully acknowledge that authority.

Are you sure that is the right translation? Are you sure this is in reference to free will? I am not so sure.

Yes, it’s reiterated throughout the texts. You cannot properly understand the story being told if you do not first understand free will because it’s a central element to the events being described. God called all of creation before Adam “good”.

Like we’ve learned through science, there are constant unchanging laws and the adherence to those laws is absolute. This is how/why we’re able to define them as we do.

If this same thing was true of each of us, if our actions/behaviors/decisions were all determined by our physical make-up then we each would just be passive observers of life, not active participants. Life would be meaningless. And we could not be held accountable for our actions because we would have no control over them. All would be determined before we were even born. How can we be judged if we are not in control of our lives/actions?

The theme of the biblical story becomes about human behavior. From Adam on. The interactions between God and the Israelites is a perfect example. This is God working to create/breed Jesus in an environment He does not have control of. Just like a breeder would do, He chooses a specimen, observes and tests that specimen, then breeds from them. He controls what groups mix with who, who they procreate with, what they eat, what they wear. All in the interest of keeping the “holy seed” pure.

This is seeming more and more racist as you continue explaining. And James Demeo is a Reichian fanatic with no semblance of credibility. The redefinition of free will doesn’t help.

Finally, there was no Adam. There was no great flood. There was no confusion of tongues. These are all just stories, and you can’t build history on them. I don’t think there is any profit in talking to you, though I probably will if you say anything interesting.

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As far as I know the text does not include the word “human”.

It seems really creepy to me also. Very arbitrary and demeaning to the humans without a soul. If you say it’s theological nonsense, I will add that it’s scientific, genomic, anthropological, and archaeological nonsense too.

Great, I am now pleased that Homo Erectus had souls. Thanks for that. Does Australopithecus have souls also? And what about that little monkey who’s mutated Vitamin C gene that we all have?

Please tell us more about this. What’s your definition of free will? Did Homo Erectus, 2 million years ago have free will? Did Neanderthals? When did you think free will emerged in human minds?

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It is also definitely not what most of us are proposing.

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It’s funny how you state all of that as if it’s fact like you know and you’re educating me. Didn’t think I’d have this problem here, yet here we are. I guess it’s inevitable.

You can and I have built history on them. The series of events from Adam/Eve, Cain, Cain’s city, the flood, and Babel, nearly 2000 consecutive years, all line up down to the number of centuries in between in that specific region of the world with actual documented events. This interpretation explains why the flood didn’t need to be anything more than regional. A flood that did happen. The dispersion at Babel was caused by a climate change called the 5.9 kiloyear event, and the languages were already varied by that point, so simply dispersing the humans of that region into these other cultures managed to confuse their languages.

So far you’ve shown yourself to be very close minded so I doubt discourse with you will get anyone anywhere. The ‘racist’ comment is particularly telling. How exactly am I being racist?

@John_Harshman is just putting his personal opinion out there.

Are you talking about Genesis 6? Nearly every translation I’ve read calls them the “daughters of humans”.

Perhaps look at the original language. What do you see? Does it say “human” or something else?

My free will has been covered above pretty extensively, but to put it simply, a free will is a will apart from God’s will. Humans with free will are creators (like God) in that we create things/ideas/inventions/etc and add to this universe things that are not “of God”, but that are “of us”.

No, none of the precursors of homo sapiens had free will. Homo sapiens didn’t even have free will until Adam was created around 5500BC. It can be seen most distinctly if you pan out and look at the overall progression of human history.

The tell-tale sign of free will is civilization, writing, inventions, all the things that came about first in southern Mesopotamia in a few short centuries after not having existed anywhere in the world throughout the tens of thousands of years of Homo Sapiens existence.

From that point forward humanity has been transforming the world unlike any other species ever has.

It first began in the Ubaid period of southern Mesopotamia, then the flood about 4000BC, then Babel, then came the Uruk culture in Mesopotamia, Egypt along the Nile, the Indus Valley to the west, and up into Europe and beyond.

I have. I’ve combed the original Hebrew in every way I know how. What’s most telling is what’s being described. One chapter before it describes how 10 generations of Adam’s family all lived for centuries. Then here, in the very next chapter, it says humans are “mortal” and only live 120 years.

It’s clearly making a distinction between two different groups. One, the “sons of God” (Adam’s family), two, the “daughters of humans” (naturally evolved humans). This mixing with “mortal” humans who only live 120 years is why the descendants of Adam’s lifespans sharply decline each generation from that point forward.

That is not the original language. What words are used? Do you remember?

What is the original language? As far as I know the oldest surviving texts are written in Hebrew.

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What were the Hebrew words used in Genesis 6:1-4?

The Indus valley civilizations pre-date Mesopotamia by about 2000 years. Take a look at that TED @jongarvey posted.

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@Alice_Linsley can you help out here? Thanks