ࡱ> /1.G % bjbjَ *%] $&&&&&|& ~ Unchronicle of the Christian vs. the Pagan Scientist Dr. Pikkards Contra Sagan: Response to Professor Karl Olof Van Sagans Acclaimed Treatise: Science, the Primitive Christian Creation Myth, and the Cosmos I Eden--the Terrestrial Garden Paradise of Almighty God Professor Sagan: It is absurd to think that the Almighty of the Universe would not have better things to do than to turn common horiculturalist, get His hands dirty, and plant Himself a little garden called Eden on an insignificant planet such as Earth. Answer. Name: God planted the garden eastward in Eden. (Genesis 2:8). As the account indicates, the name of the garden was not Eden, though it has come to be called that from long association. Was Earth first named Eden? Earth, of course, is not a proper name at all, since it is of the species that people generally award any natural feature nearby without actually naming it, since as the Mountain, the River, the Sea, the Plain. As we know from the classical Eastern model, gardens were always hedged, walled, and gated like the royal parks of kings. This too was of that type, for the East Gate is mentioned two chapters later in this account. Such parks and gardens were immense, as we know, and so it can be expected that Gods garden contained a large territory. Yet why was it walled? The ancient kings sought to keep unwanted animals and common people out, as well as keep whatever they prized within the park for their own pleasure. Is it possible that the rest of Earth was howling wilderness? Or if not howling wilderness, was it in the possession of the Enemy and this garden was Gods own beachhead on hostile territory? B. Location: Eastward in Eden Professor Sagan: My theological friends outside science have assured me that the location too is rather silly and arbitrary. Why should Eden be situated in the East? Why not in North America, or even in the lush tropics of South America? Why in so arrid and sun-stricken a place as the Middle East? As always, the Genesis account makes no reasonable sense at all. Any mentally capable gardener would plant his garden where water was most abundant, not in the midst of a desert region known for scanty, sporadic rainfalls and the paucity of rivers and streams. This is just another instance of a highly arbitrary, localized Semitic desert deity being attributed powers of a greater god that did not belong to him. To wit: if this god could be said to place HIS garden anywhere he wished, then he, like a king, was potent and powerful. And these four rivers--the Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, Euphrates! All except the Euphrates, which they chose because it could not be left out of any account, being the largest and best-known of Middle Eastern rivers, are fictitious. A: Location: Eastward in Eden. The location was excellent. The location was highly significant, since the Lord God had the entire world at His disposal. Was it because His plans for His Chosen People in the region? Could he have isolated them for special dealings in some other place? Here they were highly dependent on his provision and protection. In some wide, sparcely populated terrain with super-abundant natural provisions such as North America, there would not have been that kind of dependence. Self-sufficient unto themselves, the Hebrews might well have been just as satisfied as the tribes of the northern American wilderness were--monothesists, truly, but possessing no real urgency in their spirit to press into the Godhead of the Almighty as David or any of the Prophets routinely pressed. Could such tribes have provided anything like the Jewish people as a matrix for the Messiah? No! They were too well-favored in worldly circumstances. Only afterward the coming of the whiteman and his civilization were the tribes pressed to the wall where they began crying out for a Messiah to arise from their own peoples--and then they were sadly disappointed in the Messiahs that arose from their midst. Handsome Lake, Wovoka, and any other would-be Messiah of the Indian tribes--there is little or no comparison with the Christ Jesus of the Jews. Many tribes recognized this as well, choosing to believe in Him, though He was made known to them by their very enemies, the whites that were stealing their lands and breaking all the treaties--a further proof that the Indians knew Whom was greater. Some accounts place it under the upper waters of the Persian Gulf, a region that was at one time above water. As for the four rivers mentioned, all but the Euphrates may have been inundated later. One river, not four, fed the garden all the water it required, and then four rivers exited the garden, testifying to the abundance of the inflow and outflow. The Professor is mistaken. There was no rainfall at that time, according to Genesis, and until after the Flood, there would be none. A river was absolutely necessary to provide the super-abundance of water necessary to support the super-abundant greenery of Paradise. As a supplement, heavy dew also rose up from the ground and watered the herbage and trees. The main river entered the garden (no name for the river is given) and it supplied so much water that it created four rivers after leaving the garden (a clear sign for all to see that Providence will provide far and above the necessaries!). Gods Garden, then, stood as a testimony to His kingdoms felicity and super-abundance Grace and Provision, a contrast, no doubt, to the paucity of life-giving moisture that those outside, defying the Creator, must endure as long as they remain in that state. Witness also the wealth and abundance according to Israels greatest king, David, who was a man after Gods own heart. He was the richest monarch on Earth, and, it appears, the most powerful. God exceeded every expectation in showering blessings upon this man and his people, even though David, on occasion, sadly transgressed. But even the lapses prove the abundance of Gods Grace, which never failed David, even though he failed God at times. In like manner, each believer in God is granted Davids Thousand-Fold Blessing, and in that believers life and area of responsibility a Second, even more glorious Edenic Paradise can be created on this old Earth, yes, even amidst this dark, sin-and-sorrow soaked world, if only Grace is allowed free flow and not obstructed by human will and sin on every occasion it would restore Paradise to Earth. Liberalism, which sought to restore Paradise with strictly human agencies and human good, has never worked and never could work, because it ignores the fact that the Source of all life is not within mans bosom or within the capability of his mind and hands, but instead it flows like an everlasting crystal river from the Almighty Creator. The chance crumbs and poisoned springs of liberal thinkers may seem to be a great thing, but in contrast to Eternitys resources they are most pitiful--which is all they have to offer mankind. Xe% 6;<RX  s^            ;  ! 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