Altruism II

I'm always amazed that one of the most insightful commentaries on Genesis was made by an atheist. Carl Sagan's The Dragons of Eden seems to understand the concept of the Fall better than many theologians.

Human beings were designed for a natural role in the natural world, just like every other creeping and crawling thing on the Earth. Genesis so perfectly reflects this reality when it asserts "and the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed."

Of course the primary abstraction that separates us from nature is not clothing, nor is it even technology. Archaeology shows that war began when sedentary life began - civilization (ironic, no?) Modern nomadic peoples like the !Kung who are completely nomadic don't have a territory they feel a need to defend. But ten thousand years ago, when people began to put down roots in fixed unmoving communities, and began to concentrate in larger and more noticeable numbers, human beings first began to think in terms of possession, and kindred and strangers.

And there, another Genesis metaphor comes into play:

In the course of time, Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering (Genesis 4:4-5)

One of the brothers, Abel, could be said to represent the nomads (the sheperd, for humans domesticated animals millenia before settling), and Cain the first agricultural settlers. Does perhaps God look with favour on Abel because he lives a life closer to the one we are designed by nature to live? The allegorical richness of Genesis is nearly without end, but I will cease my rambling with that thought.