On the Topic of Origin Sin, Faith and Proofs for Select Universal Propositions

Original sin as I think about it, originated at the fall of Adam and Eve. They were physically changed then into mortal form with that strife. Human being as a thermodynamic process is the original sin context that can be overcome through faith alone.

The ten commandments were required because people wander into sundry immoral directions without moral guidance. God provided several opportunities for mankind to become perfect through perfect obedience, yet of course they always flunked.

I read Rosenberg's 'Abraham: The First Historical Biography' last year and really enjoyed it. It is a brilliant intellectual recover and reconstruction of Abraham's life in Sumer from what data is available. It is definitely worth reading.

Rosenberg and Bloom also wrote 'The J Book'. J of course was thought of as the woman of Solomon or Rehoboam's Court who put together from various materials the book of Genesis (as well as a few other,later authors). It is very difficult today to imagine the exact circumstance in which the book of Genesis was put together, yet Rosenberg makes a brilliant, worthwhile effort.

One might also regard the history of Mesopotamia, the migration of human life to the Persian Gulf from Africa perhaps 70,000 B.C. from the Horn of Africa when the sea level was 300 feet lower (it rose quickly about 20,000 B.C.), the loss of the Eden of a Garden like Saudi Arabia and Sahara with global warming, and the later flooding of the earliest civilization on the present day sea floor of the Persian Gulf 300 feet below the surface without a trace remaining. The story of Gilgamesh definitely parallels that of Moses, and the J writer was probably familiar with Abraham's history in Sumer and of Sumerian culture. As a part of cultural history she might have added that to Genesis herself.

If the first civilization in history was lost to the rise of the Persian Gulf and world ocean. If the Bible recounts some of true human history and if the rise of humanity from the condition of innocence as animals before civilization was judged by God and drowned in order that a better civilization with rules (later even the ten commandments) maybe that was progress.

It is difficult to imagine a Universe from then point of view of God. What if he like planets, atoms and molecules and even animals but wanted some intelligent beings to experience existence with? Evolving those creatures would be a difficult process and it would be tough to get them to have a respect for their Creator especially if they make up daft pagan theories, mud gods from the plain of Tillman and cosmology theories about the Universe they experience that bring them to belief in themselves and their ability to understand a fraction of God's creative power, instead of God.

The Bible or Biblos means 'little books'. It is a compilation of many little books with different histories and contexts. I enjoyed reading Pelikan's 'Whose Bible Is It' for some background.

One should not assume (I am not saying you have) that God works with human history from the position of obsolete cosmological artifact constructed by ancient peoples. People over history have done and thought a lot of things, yet God is eternal and ahead of the game regarding human intellectual works. Urartu was transliterated by the Jews as Ararat. The hills of Ararat or Urartu was in contemporary Iraq away from the Gulf some hundred miles or so-its ancient borders may have been closer to the flooded region, that is itself rather historically vague. Yet it was a good place for survivors with Noah to come to rest after the storm with their livestock.

Original sin is in the thermodynamic process of humanity. With immortality and eating of the tree of knowledge (technology, philosophy and so forth) they might rise to consume the entire Universe, or convert it to a quantum computer and pop new Universes into being without being smart enough to pass of safety checks. For that and other reasons humanity has had it garden of Eden wings clipped a little-they just can't follow orders very well even if they are for their own good.

The Universal affirmative and Universal negative propositions in the context of the existence of God seem self-standing. I do not think its reasonable to prove one or the other by asking the someone to prove or disprove the other.

My reasons for faith are good enough yet I do not assume that one can prove the existence of God by the failure of atheists to prove the non-existence of God (the Universal negative proposition). One cannot prove the Universal from the particular. If God was found not to exist in 1000 Universes after complete search, he might still have been somewhere else-perhaps in the 1001st (or he might have moved back to a Universe not being searched by scientific atheists).

One cannot disprove the existence of extra-terrestrials just because after thorough searching with technology no sign of alien life or communication has been found. I don't think God either might place a large neon sign somewhere in the Magellenic Cloud and say 'Hey Earth-persons, I'm over here!'. Instead, one has the prophets and The Lord and faith-even with a personal, transcendent relationship.

Expecting to place God in a physically causal and contingent category isn't reasonable.