The Religious Discussion

[The Envenomed Kiss]

Part 1 of Dr. TEK's Lecture Series: The Birth of Civilization

We are often taught in High School history classes that Mesopotamia is the origin of civilization. Well that all depends on how you define civilization in fact. Just because someone lives a nomadic lifestyle does that make them less civilized than someone who lives a sedentary lifestyle? The truth of the matter is that Mesopotamia is not the place that human kind originated, as archaeological evidence points out at the time period there were many different and rapidly advancing cultures spread out from all over the Middle East (and as far north as Europe). They traded with each other, and some evidence points out that they may have even been farming. So the one thing left remaining, that would make Mesopotamia the "Cradle of Civilization" is writing. This is where true writing is developed. I say true writing, because early "picture writing" such as cave drawings during the Neolithic period are considered a form of proto-writing. The earliest accredited writing system is the Sumerian Cuneiform script which emerged around 3400BC. Closely followed by the Egyptian Hieroglyphic system around 3300-3200BC. I break at this point to show you some maps so you know what we are dealing with, and don't get lost.

Here we have a map showing the area known as Mesopotamia (the area shaded green).You can distinctly see the five major areas Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, Phoenicia, and Palestine. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers were extremely important to these people as they are what causes the region to be known as the "Fertile Crescent".

And this map here shows proposed trade routes from the same period. As you can see, people were traveling, exploring, and sharing their culture already.

What makes this so important is that as these people traveled, not only did they trade in goods and culture, they introduced people to writing. So now they had a clear, and more potent, way of recording their history. It is interesting to note that there was not a lot of idealistic writing until later on in history. The main focus of early writings is the history of a culture, it's peoples, and their god or gods. They now had a way to inscribe their beliefs into written word, so that all could see it, even us thousands of years afterward.

[Kir4]

Waiting for part 2 Mrs. Dr. TEK.

[bonobo4]

Nice factual information there Dr. Tek. Though you say

The truth of the matter is that Mesopotamia is not the place that human kind originated, as archaeological evidence points out at the time period there were many different and rapidly advancing cultures spread out from all over the Middle East (and as far north as Europe).

Yet, you later say

They traded with each other, and some evidence points out that they may have even been farming. So the one thing left remaining, that would make Mesopotamia the "Cradle of Civilization" is writing.

And then further say

The earliest accredited writing system is the Sumerian Cuneiform script which emerged around 3400BC.

This means that whilst Mesopotamia is not the birthplace of mankind* or culture, it is the birthplace of "civilisation."

*Evidence shows neanderthals evolved (I now know this is going to be argued upon,) from East Africa and began over thousands of years to inhabit the earth. I believe the Americas were last to be inhabited, and they walked over the Arctic to cross from Siberia to Alaska.

Agreed, like Kir4, I await Part 2. By the way, have you considered a teaching job?

[ASYLUM101]

Agreed, like Kir4, I await Part 2. By the way, have you considered a teaching job?

Teachers need a degree.

[The Envenomed Kiss]

Waiting for part 2 Mrs. Dr. TEK.

Tomorrow

@Bonobo: Yes. Which is something that will come into play later.

[Caw521]

Sheesh, this is the ultimate contradictory thread.

[S]Not to offend anyone, but it's a little something that some might have heard before-
"You can't see God, so he probably doesn't exist"
-"So you can't see your brain, so it probably doesn't exist"



Anyway-

Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden because Eve was tempted by the serpent and gave in to eating what God had said not to eat. Adam also ate it when Eve had offered it to him. It is most likely that Adam was either next to or near Eve, and he knew that the fruit was from the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. That was a consequence of free will, that they had both eaten from the tree.
I don't know how to clearly put into words my PoV of free will, but, um, if we were created almost as robots, programmed to just do stuff and whatnot, why live? There also has to be someone or some being that created us, so in a Christian's sense, God (Yahweh, Jehovah) created us. God created us to love us and he made us in his image. If you had a son (or daughter) that was programmed to do stuff for you, to love you, would you be happy? Probably not. So people have free will. People will still sin because of free will, but as I mentioned before that it's hard to love someone who's simply programmed to love you back.

I know it's very quite shallow, but Imma bit scared to go on. =S[/S]

Read it if you want

[ASYLUM101]

God, schmod. I don't bother arguing this boloney because you can't convince anyone. And if you're an athiest who hates christians for pushing their beliefs onto others, and push your beliefs back, you're just as bad imo. This is all I will input into this thread, good day!

[Caw521]

Actually, I think this thread is gonna be closed soon

[ASYLUM101]

I like how the strikeout applies to the smilies.

[The Envenomed Kiss]

Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden because Eve was tempted by the serpent and gave in to eating what God had said not to eat. Adam also ate it when Eve had offered it to him. It is most likely that Adam was either next to or near Eve, and he knew that the fruit was from the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. That was a consequence of free will, that they had both eaten from the tree.
I don't know how to clearly put into words my PoV of free will, but, um, if we were created almost as robots, programmed to just do stuff and whatnot, why live? There also has to be someone or some being that created us, so in a Christian's sense, God (Yahweh, Jehovah) created us. God created us to love us and he made us in his image. If you had a son (or daughter) that was programmed to do stuff for you, to love you, would you be happy? Probably not. So people have free will. People will still sin because of free will, but as I mentioned before that it's hard to love someone who's simply programmed to love you back.

I'm actually going to cover this later (probably part 3) because the whole of Genesis is actually plagiarism