Jeremy Christian's Take on Adam

@John_Harshman First, regarding free will.

In this context the difference between a person with and without free will would be the same differences between a person born of our modern culture and one born of an indigenous culture. Indigenous cultures aren’t driven to conquer the next frontier like we are. They’re content living a simple life in harmony with nature. It’s those of us of these modern cultures who are inherently discontent. Or, like Blaise Pascal once said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Indigenous people do not have this problem.

These behavior changes are well documented in the two books I mentioned …

  • Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse, Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence, In the Deserts of the Old World by James DeMeo

  • The Fall: The Insanity of the Ego in Human History and the Dawning of A New Era by Steve Taylor

The Indus Valley culture and China are also covered in these books. I just didn’t get into them here, but the Indus Valley actually came along right about the same time and was quite advanced compared to others in the region. The dispersion at Babel led to Sumer there in Mesopotamia (the Uruk Period), Egypt to the east, the European cultures to the north, the Indus Valley culture and the Nordic cultures to the west.

It’s very similar to how Genesis described Adam/Eve changing after the fall. They became self-aware.

For example, if you read about studies done with Aborigines, then you’re probably already familiar. At one point houses were built for these people, personal possessions given, in an attempt to acclimate them to our ways of living. But when they returned none of the homes or possessions belonged to any individual. They were all shared among the members of the tribe equally. There was no sense of personal possession.

Personal possession, along with male-dominance and other characteristics, came about rather late in the game. They started in Sumer and spread from there, as those two books explore in detail.

Much like the behavior change in humans that the Roman poet Ovid observed, “There broke out … all manner of evil, and shame fled, and truth and faith. In place of these came deceits and trickery and treachery and force and the accursed love of possession … And the land, hitherto a common possession like the light of the sun and the breezes, the careful surveyor now marked out with long boundary lines.”

Second, regarding “master race” and “mongrelization”

I’ve been at this for eight years now, so you can be sure I’ve come across these types of objections before. Don’t let these tales scare you away from these topics. Yes, what we’re discussing is going to come bumping up against racial issues quite a lot. We can’t let these fears disable our ability to discuss these issues openly.

Like the issues of beings with and without free will. I’ve been accused a time or two of being racist because of my claim that indigenous cultures don’t have free will. Don’t get it confused, a human without free will means they’re living within the will of God at all times. What we all strive to be, they already are. This does not make them less human or less capable. We are biologically identical.

But the truth remains, and human history illustrates, something significant sets our two blood lines apart. Allowing fear to get in the way of these discussions only holds us back from reaching greater understanding. I make it a priority at all times to not disrespect anyone or any race of people. It is possible to have these discussions respectfully and to avoid the ewwww factor.