The Life of Adam

I have said that the Genesis story is mythological in nature, no person such as Adam ever lived, at least not at the time he is said to have lived. But still the story is very important to me. I have enjoyed learning this story and I have enjoyed reading it.

I have taken many hours of enjoyment from imagining what the life of Adam might have been like. I like to place myself in his shoes and ask the question, "What should I do?" What discoveries would I need to discover in order to have a comfortable life, free from all the modern convieniences that we have today? I have imagined that the invention of String or Thread would be high up on my list of basic neccessities. And the knowledge required to make bricks would certainly be handy to have. Aside from the ability to produce fire, it would be a very good thing to recognize the value of charcoal and how to make it. I wonder how long it would take me to figure out that chipping two stones together might form a decent cutting edge. But cutting stone and masonry is an art that I believe would be beyond my patience to develope.

And aside from the need to find food and shelter, you would constantly be burdened with young children. Its hard to imagine enjoying a moment of peace under such circumstances. If I could somehow invent one single luxury, it would simply have to be hot water. Yes I think that access to a hot bath or shower is essential to human comfort.

But if I could be removed from the world bodily and transported away to a pristine world, uninhabited by any kind of intelligent life. If I had such a choice available to me, would I take it?
Of course I must have a wife with me to help populate such a world, I do not enjoy such a relationship at the moment, perhaps one can be made for me :D Of course one must enjoy a long and youthful life in order to begin a whole world like this. I will need all the advantages of a Tree of Life in my world. If I knew that my world would be a recreation of this Earth, if I knew that my own children would suffer all the things that the people of the Earth have suffered. Would I want to be the cause of recreating human history all over again? Should I even try to imagine that I might be able to do something differently, to improve the course of such a history? Perhaps I would be able to impart some lasting wisdom with my children if I made a special effort, that would allow them to avoid some of the more serious problems. Well for all that I have tried, I can't imagine things turning out much differently than they have here on Earth.

The development of agriculture is neccessary and inevitable. The developement of industrialization seems pretty inevitable as well. But of course I should want all my descendents to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle, as comfortable as they can possibly make it. I would not want to see large numbers of my children suffering discomfort or dissadvantages. Even while I can imagine some mystical tree of life to keep me alive, I find it very hard to imagine immortality. Nothing in this Universe it seems is made to last forever, and the human body is certainly not created to last for very long. So my children will all have to suffer mortality and I as well eventually.

It is fun and romantic to think that this is exactly how worlds are created, even this Earth. Some person or two people who were the first human beings, were brought here from some other planet perhaps? But I do not believe that this is true. All the different kinds of life that we see here in this world is perfectly native to this world I believe. It all was formed here from a single germ, a single simple organism. And I believe there is plenty of room within a story of evolution for intelligent design to occur.

Now try to imagine that our Adam could be returned to this world. How do you think he would feel about the way things are?