0065 The normal context of modern Christian Faith3 brings the common metal of Biblical inerrancy and divine accommodation2 into relation with the possibility of Biblical and historical interpretation in the modern and postmodern age1.
0066 How can this be?
The recovery of cuneiform texts from ancient Near Eastern civilizations during the modern era gives me information that not even Moses was aware of. The stories of Adam and Eve trace back to the earliest stages of Mesopotamian civilization. The Creation Story is a sign of the evolutionary record and a sign of the ancient Near East.
0067 What is so important about the first civilization on Earth?
Remember the analogy of the great river running north from eastern Africa through Egypt, to the Mediterranean Sea? The southern and elevated part is De Nile. Then, there is the imaginary falls (which is really a series of boat-crushing rapids). Then, there is DeNial, running to the Sea and the start of history. The Lebenswelt that we evolved in corresponds to De Nile. Our current Lebenswelt corresponds to DeNial. We, in our current Lebenswelt, are so estranged from the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, that all written origin stories of the ancient Near East (except for the anomalous Genesis One) depict a recent origin of humans.
0066 In some of the written origin stories of the ancient Near East, humans spring from seeds in irrigated fields.
On other stories, humans are fashioned from the blood of a defeated deity.
All are in accord in this one regard. Humans are recent things.
0068 Witness the stories of Adam and Eve. The manufacture of each person is quite specific. They are fashioned during the Wet Neolithic of southwestern Asia (and northern Africa) at the confluence of four rivers, two of which are the Tigris and Euphrates. The scene is depicted in Razie Mah’s masterwork, An Archeology of the Fall, as an island that rises out of river mud. There, a garden grows.
The apparent error that four rivers flow out of Eden is not an error at all. It is merely an appearance that locates the witness on the island. On top of that, the other apparent errors of the making of Adam and Eve point to the genre of fairy tales. Many aspects of the stories of Adam and Eve point to the location and timing of the Ubaid of southern Mesopotamia. Many aspects point to the genre of fairy tale.
0069 When the modern inquirer stands at the bottom of the rapids separating DeNile from DeNial, which are really the same river, running from east-African highlands to Mediterranean-delta lowlands, we may correctly and honestly describe these the rapids as a giant waterfall, hundreds of feet tall. No boat can pass from DeNial to De Nile, not even one carrying the (allegedly) feather-light soul of the Pharaoh. Similarly, we, in our current Lebenswelt, cannot navigate back to the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.
The disjuncture is so great that scientists, fixed on accounting for the metaphorical lands around De Nile, cannot imagine the waterfall. Instead, they see a series of rapids, which they label, The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution, or The Copper Age, or Trends towards Urbanization, or A Transition from Down-The-Line Trading to Organized Long-Distance Trade.
0070 Of course, what scientist would model a series of non-navigable rapids with the conceptual apparatus of a huge impassible waterfall?
Oh, that is precisely what the writers of the ancient Near East do.
They cannot see the highlands above the rapids. So, the Lebenswelt that we evolved in never comes to view. The waterfall is so tall that it reaches from the earth to the heavens. Or is it, from the heavens to earth?
0071 So, versus 26 and 27 of sura 15 of the Qu’ran says that humans are molded from dry clay. And the jinn? They are created from the scorching fire. Perhaps, the jinn are associated to the same roaring fires that burned ancient royal cities and kilned cuneiform clay tablets into brick.
0072 Why do scientists not imagine the waterfall that is witnessed by every recovered origin story of the ancient Near East (with one exception)?
The scientific story of human evolution, dutifully recounted by Loke in section 5.1, is radically incomplete, because it cannot account for the testimony of all the written origin stories of the ancient Near East. At the start of our current Lebenswelt, humanity is born again.
0073 Loke does not know about The First Singularity and Its Fairy Tale Trace, by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues. Loke has not heard about An Archaeology of the Fall.
Loke is not alone. There is a scientific hypothesis that agrees with all those written origin stories of the ancient Near East. Human evolution comes with a twist. The Ubaid of southern Mesopotamia is the first culture on Earth to practice speech-alone talk. At the time, all other contemporaneous Epipaleolithic and Neolithic cultures practice hand-speech talk. Today, all civilizations employ speech-alone talk.