Eden Revisited #2: A Safe Place to Grow

The setting of Genesis 2 and 3 is a garden inside a region called Eden.  Without the unbiblical constraints of perfectionism, this garden relays more than just idealistic beauty.

God filled this safe place with the best plants plus two special trees.  God made man and put him into the garden.  God made animals and presented them to the man inside the garden. 

The Bible never says this garden was heaven, represents heaven on Earth, or that it was even close to being perfect.  It never even mentions immortal life forms, which includes human.  The order that plants, animals, and people arrive in the garden does not dictate the order of their creation or the time it took to create them.  The text does not say plants, animals, or man originated inside the garden, or that only these few lived on the planet. 

Most accounts of this story require these kinds of additions.  But, if they are not biblical why am I held to believe them.  Instead of bolstering the story with truth, the story is actually lost in an ever-growing cloud of fantasy.  Such dogmatic ideals distort our understanding.

Genesis 2 does not mention weeds within the garden, but that does not decree their non-existence.  There is no need to add an unbiblical redesign to creation.  Using a natural interpretation, these plants simply did not bother the people living in the garden.  God tells Adam that humanity’s relationship with nature was about to change.  Instead of being gatherers, they were about to learn farming and husbandry.  Tilled soil would grow inedible plants that thinned their harvest.  Animals would take refuge in the thorniest bushes.  The children of Adam would call these plants evil and the land that grew them cursed because God made them grow efficiently.

Removing all those unbiblical additions simply lets the text say life began as God dictated.  He did not need to recreate anything just because humans sinned.  God also provided empirical evidence for us to determine the order and function of creation.  We must decipher nature without the overburden of mythical theology.  Through knowledge, He intended for us to identify and remove any untruth that hinders our understanding, no matter how sacred.  The study of nature will let us rule justly and appreciate even the parts that we consider cursed.

We require a shift in relationship perspective.  God created the plants, all the plants, even those we call evil.  Yet, He called them good.

To be continued:

[Lessons from Creation’s Parables: Genesis and Standard Science, Sung as One, by Jo Helen Cox.]

Also in this series:

Eden Revisited #1: Powerful Love vs. Limited Perfection

Eden Revisited #3: The Garden River

Eden Revisited #4: Humanity’s Origins

Eden Revisited #5: Creation of Death

Eden Revisited #6: Curse? What Curse?

Eden Revisited #7: Original Sin Theology

Eden Revisited #8: The Lesson of Blessing

Also see series:

Genesis Revisited

Eden Revisited