In Memoriam: Lynn Margulis (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Tuesday, November 29, 2011, 03:27 (4744 days ago) @ David Turell

I dunno. I just know that it clearly describes Eve's creation as coming out of Adam. Then later, after they are expelled, the narrative explicitly states they had sex and had kids. The reason that struck me as odd, is: Why would the narrator feel that it needed to be stated explicitly if it was implied as part of normal marital relations prior to being expelled? While we may never know the answer to the question, it seems to imply that they weren't having sex prior to being expelled.

Another thing that is worthy of mention in identifying these little oddities, is that Adam is used to mean both mankind and a specific man. I am a little at odds about how they determine which is which. As for what it all means, I don't know, and to be quite honest all the pieces are still forming into a cohesive pattern that I can't quite put into words yet.

But, for the sake of argument, lets posit a scenario and see where the chips fall.

IF, as we have speculated elsewhere, there is some form of cyclical nature to humanities existence, and IF each cycle runs a full course from hunter gatherer to techno-industrial societies, how would the survivors of the fall of such a civilization try to preserve their knowledge.

The answer of course would be stories, either verbal or oral traditions. However, we can assume that survivors of a techno-industrial civilization thrust back into cave man status would lack the means or know how to generate simple things we take for granted, like pens, paper, ink, etc. So, within a dramatically short time span, knowledge becomes stories, stories become legends, legends become myths, and myths become religions. We can assume that language would devolve as well over time due to multi-lingual survivors having to come to a common language. This language would almost by necessity lack the complex structure needed to explain complicated scientific ideas.

So, with that in mind, taking everything that you personally know about evolution, cosmology, and all, if you were going to pass on that knowledge orally to your grandchildren, what would you tell them? How much of it would they remember? And how would they pass it on to their children?

How long until "Man evolved from lifeless particles via a process known as abiogenesis in the primordial soup of the oceans.' becomes, "Man was formed from the elements(dust) of the earth?" How long until, "As humans became bipedal, their hips migrated forward, greatly increasing the difficulties of labor." becomes "And the gods punished women by greatly increasing her labor pains?"

I don't know whether this actually happened or not. It was just a thought that struck me as I read the original article you linked.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.