Genesis 1-3

Coming from a very logical background I read the first three chapters of Genesis quite differently then I may have in the past. Years ago, when I attended Sunday School, I may have thought of it as a true story of the beginnings of life. Now I simply see it as an interesting artifact that displays the knowledge and values of a different time. To me, it shows particularly a lack of knowledge of how the earth, living things, the moon, the solar system, the stars, and the universe work. Genesis makes it seem as if God made everything we know appear in just six days, something I personally do not believe in. Furthermore, the first three chapters also make it seem as if everything was created to serve man: the earth, plants, animals, the moon, the stars, the sun, and even woman. God says to Eve: “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” To me this is a very egocentric view. The stories try to explain that women were made from one of man’s ribs, which supports the false medical rumor that men have one less rib then women. Of course, the stories also say that snakes could once talk. Although I don’t believe in much of what is written in Genesis, I do commend the people of the time for trying to explain everything. Genesis does also displays what the people of the time did have a good knowledge of. It seems they had a good knowledge of seeds, and how plants grow. In the last line of chapter three, it proves that by the time this was written, humans already had sophisticated weapons such as swords. When God makes woman from one of man’s ribs, it is mentioned that man was first put into a deep sleep. This may clue to the surgical practices still used today. When God makes the stars, it explains that they are used to tell seasons, and for navigation, which means that a fairly sophisticated calendar, and navigation system may have been in place. A somewhat out of place paragraph about rivers, mentions the value of gold, and other metals, perhaps clueing to an advance economic system of the time. These technologies may have been added to the text as it got rewritten and translated throughout time. Never the less it is still and interesting portal to human mind, far in the past.