When I asked a nun where the "land of Nod" was and how did it get populated by people if Adam and Eve were the first people and their kids the first. Somehow I was supposed to get an answer through osmosis of a scolding for questioning the bible, a letter sent home to my mom about my asking strange questions and studying a corner in one of the classrooms.
It didn't work and I still don't have an answer.
Yep, that's the question that got me whacked with the ruler in 2nd grade catechism. The answer seemed to be "don't question the bible and don't think so hard." Well, I kinda like thinking ... so I left the church.
An earlier book of the Christian Bible was removed . Adam's first wife was Lilith , according to the Hebrew version . Adam did not like that she was his equal . According to archeology , there were several different humanoid groups , ours not being the first . Neanderthal and Denisans being just two other groups , but not the last .
I've often wondered if stories of trolls, giants and faery folk originated with other hominids our ancestors encountered.
@Sofabeast Indeed Mutations are always occurring. Some successful. Some not. [pygmies.org]
Well my racist grandfather explained it to me. He said when they went out to the Land of Nod they married monkeys and that's where black people came from. Of course that actually could be used to justify the fact that we all came from Africa and we all have the same ancestors.
I immediately asked him where white people came from and he said Adam and Eve had more children. I was young enough the concept of incest never occurred to me.
Even biology says that we are all decended from mitochondrial eve, so whichever way you jump, there is an aweful lot of incest.
There are Wee Free Kirks in Scotland who teach this as fact. Thus, people who are black are being being punished by god for having sex with monkeys.
All part of God's plan of course.
@Fernapple And she was African. So when the African plate collided with the Euro plate & created the Alps & the inland sea of Mediterranea, then logically the entire southern area of Europe is geologically Africa. I enjoy irking those EYEtalian Amurkins who tend to be nasty when it comes to homosapien's diversity.
That's what got me in trouble with the nun teaching this story to our catechism class in 2nd grade. I couldn't understand how the world got populated if Adam and Eve, had children, wouldn't the children (brothers and sisters) have to marry each other? Whack with the ruler, right on my hand! Got me thinking about why I was being asked to pay attention - I'd have been better off not listening at all and just reciting what they asked.
Yep. We learned to keep our mouths shut, didn’t we?!
@MsKathleen Backfired on the church though - since I'm an outspoken atheist now!
I made :good trouble" also. Making fart noises with my armpit. "Ladies don't do that" I was told. I replied in 2nd grade, " Lady? I am no 'Lady'. I am an atheist." Then SCOTUS ended school prayer with public school tax dollars.
I was about 9 years old when I read that and I was scratching my head. I asked around, but no one could explain it.
In my church daze it was explained that this was normal because people lived so long in those days. Adam and Eve would have had time enough to populate other areas and it only means that Cain and Abel married late. Well, like real late. Enough time went on now to where none of this would have been incest. I'm still laughing my ass off.
This all points to the bible being a collection of myths and there is some sort of moral lesson to be learned between all the metaphors... Did "God" create Adam and Eve by selecting them from their respective towns and put them in a garden where they were to live by his rule?
Eve was curious, Adam and Eve reproduced, their children sought wives from yonder land of Nod, and God's experiment wasn't as successful as desired? What would have happened to the human race if it had stopped in the Garden of Eden? We all know life was going on all over the globe by then... so what's to be learned from such a story? That God was a failure?
Who knows what the purpose was, if there was one, it's surely lost nowadays. Cain and Abel could surely find wives on Harmony or Match - who knows maybe even on Agnostic?
There were Goats everywhere.
That might explain the fauns and satyrs in mythology. lol
So many competing legends of Cain - he was a giant, a spawn of Satan ( Eve fucking around); Married his sister and moved away, starting a multitude of other peoples (usually people of dark skin); Lived to over 700 years old and had multiple evil children, and then died when his stone house fell on him (he killed Abel with a stone); he fathered a number of children, including Enoch, who god so liked that "he walked with god" (went to heaven without dying) (also, the Ethiopian bible includes two books of Enoch) ; and more possibilities.
That is what passes for reason and logic in the minds of all true Christians.
One woman in the world for them, so they fought over her. That is why Cain slew Able. Makes more sense than he was jealous of his brother's sacrifice since we see some men kill over women. (Shh, don't break the magic like when reading any other fiction.)