The Garden of Eden was based on The Galápagos Islands.

I’m kidding here, but the similarities are odd. The weather is always between 70F and 85F all year round. The biggest threat to you on the island are apples. You shouldn’t eat the apples that grow on the island; the small green ones are poisonous. Oh, and it isn’t easy to immigrate there. It’s a place where only few people are allowed to reside. Oh, and did I mention the abundant variety of plants and animals on the island?

sebinspace ,

Ironic, then, that it’s also where Darwinism was born

ParabolicMotion OP ,

Charles Darwin did not create the idea of social Darwinism, though. He suggested the biological evolution of species over time. People often pair the two ideas together because his last name is part of the word “Darwinism”.

PhlubbaDubba ,

IIRC there are theories that Eden refers to a location near where the Tigris and Euphrates meet.

Something about a line mentioning three rivers and there being a river that joins the combined river shortly after it merges.

I just think it'd be funny to imagine that the legendary first home of humanity was somewhere in southern Iraq or Kuwait.

ivanafterall ,
@ivanafterall@kbin.social avatar

This is a/the part of the Bible (Genesis 2) people reference to support that belief:

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel*: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

*Ostensibly Tigris

sp3tr4l , (edited )

Yeah, its 4 rivers, and to the best of my knowledge, biblical scholars have basically given up on trying to associate 4 rivers and the place names given with any actual real location.

Either its mythical, or some of the place names just do not linguistically connect with any of the historical record of actual locations.

Same with the 4 rivers. No conclusive evidence of dried up ancient river beds that actually fits.

Basically Eden would have to be... somewhere up river of the Tigris, but the Tigris and Euphrates actually have headwaters in modern day Turkey, and they don't have the same sources.

Most likely the authors went with some kind of local, incorrect lore from Sumer/Akkad/Babylon, or possibly the rivers did at one point actually connect, but no conclusive evidence of that exists.

corsicanguppy ,

One of the most heavily edited books based on old Sumerian fables just happens to base itself around what was ancient Sumer.

Wow.

Uruanna , (edited )

There's a field that was called Gu-edin (meaning "open fields") in the mid third millennium BCE that was the subject of a border war that lasted a couple centuries, between the cities of Lagash and Umma (which is right where you said), because the founder of Lagash bought an unassuming piece of land from Umma and a bunch of surrounding terrains, and then did mad irrigation work and it became crazy fertile. According to Lagash's records, Umma got mad that it was swindled out of such great land and kept attacking Lagash over it, and kept getting its ass kicked and its kings killed. People from Umma were "allowed" to till the field for Lagash for a time, but most of the grain would still go to Lagash, causing more revolts from Umma (and more punishment).

It's fairly agreed that this place probably gave some degree of inspiration for "Eden", along with some rare green gardens in the region created with irrigation work. The apple bit, the woman rib bit, and the knowledge bit came from other Sumerian myths.

I'm not sure if it's the Galapagos, maybe in the Canaries instead?, but some island famous for its apples, weather, and safety did play a part in inspiring the myth of Avalon, the island of apples.

macrocephalic ,

There's no mention of apples in the biblical record, just "fruit"

Uruanna ,

Right, the Inanna myth where she learns about sex also talks about eating the herbs and trees on a mountain / highland, I'm not sure when Eden was associated with an apple.

corsicanguppy ,

I just think it'd be funny to imagine that the legendary first home of humanity was somewhere in southern Iraq or Kuwait

No one tell this guy about 6th grade geography.

PhlubbaDubba ,

Mesopotamia is merely the first place civilization developed, not the place humanity originated from

Hugh_Jeggs ,

If it's such a paradise it wouldn't have an absolutely spastic way of measuring the temperature

For the other 97% of the planet, the yank means 21 to 29 degrees, I had to look it up

tonarinokanasan ,

While the conversion is appreciated, there's no reason to be an ass about it. OP labeled it, so it's not like it was confusing or making unnecessary assumptions about the audience. So really you're the one who just comes across as completely culturally insensitive.

breadsmasher , (edited )
@breadsmasher@lemmy.world avatar

Culturally insensitive

american culture - guns, school shootings, medical debt bankruptcy, idiotic units of measurements

down vote away. im not wrong. seeth more.

PhlubbaDubba ,

Dude probably posted this and then started listening to some pop or rock music without even blinking

breadsmasher ,
@breadsmasher@lemmy.world avatar

You think america invented pop or rock music?

7uWqKj ,

Poor guy can’t listen to Queen because monarchy, can’t listen to AC/DC because he’s got only 110 volts, and can’t listen to ABBA because the spelling is too complicated.

BruceTwarzen ,

Popular music only exists in america

Hugh_Jeggs ,

The vast majority, by a fucking huuuuuuge margin, has no fuckin idea how Fahrenheit works

It's culturally insensitive and selfish to use it on the World Wide Web

BigBananaDealer ,
@BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee avatar

maybe just go look it up its what i have to do when some idiot uses celsius (wtf even is that crap????)

Aurenkin , (edited )

What an absurd and intellectually inferior unit of measurement you have elected to use here. For the enlightened among us the philistine means 294 to 302 Kelvin.

SpaceNoodle ,

It's just Kelvin, you poseur.

Aurenkin , (edited )

The shame...I have corrected my error.

PhlubbaDubba ,

Because measuring temperature based on human body reflective saline solution's interaction with temperature change instead of regular water definitely qualifies as "spastic."

Then again it looks like you're one of those euro losers who copes with us making you give up all your colonies post war for rebuilding money by redirecting all those attitudes about "the uncivilized world" onto the developed country that just happens to have a high rate of racial diversity.

BTW Mr. "American culture is racism", how are those Roma folks doing?

breadsmasher ,
@breadsmasher@lemmy.world avatar

how many school shootings today?

PhlubbaDubba ,

How much of the reparations you owe the entire developing world you pay today?

Darkard ,

Christianity stole material from everywhere else, why not an explorers report on the island

Uruanna ,

The Galapagos weren't known to Christians until the mid 16th c. so there's a bit of a timing problem of over a couple thousand years.

maxprime ,

Were there people exploring the Galapagos in 1000 BCE?

7uWqKj ,

You do know that Genesis wasn’t written by Christians do you

TexasDrunk ,

Do you really believe Jesus couldn't travel through time?

7uWqKj ,

User name checks out. Are you from Texas, or are you drunk, or both? Well, you’re forgiven because either would explain why you’d believe he could (if he existed).

TexasDrunk ,

I'm both, but apparently someone's sarcasm detector needs calibration. Alternatively my sarcasm creator needs a bit of tweaking.

I'm well aware that Doc Brown, Marty McFly, Bill, Ted, and The Doctor are the only people who can time travel.

n0m4n ,

Arthur Dent?

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