When
Hitler came to power, the Germany population was 94% Christian – 40% Roman Catholic and 54% Protestant – Nazi
Germany had a larger Christian population than the United States of America. Germany was a democratic nation with a 94%
Christian population! Keep in mind that neither democracy nor Christianity
prevented the events that combined to bring down the German nation. Notice how
quickly things changed in Germany, realizing that social media did not exist
then. Thing that took weeks, months and years back then to happen, take place
in hours, days, weeks and months today. Read the complete blog at -- https://lives1st.blogspot.com/2018/11/do-you-realize-how-fast-democracy-can.html
Friday, November 2, 2018
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Prayer from Christian and Jewish Perspectives
Listen to Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor and former
pastor Jim Myers discuss the differences between Christian and Jewish
perspectives about prayer. This discussion will change the way you pray.
Prayer
from Christian and Jewish Perspectives Part 1 (9:32 minutes)
Prayer
from Christian and Jewish Perspectives Part 2 (15:32 minutes)
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Tuesday, October 30, 2018
You filled a dying man’s days with a sated joy. . .
“When Breath Becomes Air” was written by
Paul Kalanithi, a man that had just completed his residency in neurological
surgery and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience. He had a MPhil in
History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine from Cambridge and graduated
from the Yale School of Medicine. He also received the American Academy of
Neurological Surgery’s highest aware for research. At the age of 36, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of
training in medicine, he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. During the
last 22 months of his life he wrote this book. The following quotes are
from this beautiful, inspiring and informative book – a story written by a dying father to an infant daughter.
“A few months ago, I celebrated my
fifteenth college reunion at Stanford and stood out on the quad, drinking a
whiskey as a pink sun dipped below the horizon; when old friends called out
parting promises – “We’ll see you at the
twenty-fifth!”— it seemed rude to respond with “Well… probably not.”
Everyone succumbs to finitude. I suspect
I am not the only one who reaches this pluperfect state. Most ambitions are
either achieved or abandoned; either way, they belong to the past. The future, instead of the ladder toward the
goals of life, flattens out into a perpetual present. Money, status, all
the vanities the preacher of Ecclesiastes described hold so little interest: a
chasing after wind, indeed.
Yet one thing cannot be robbed of her
futurity: our daughter, Cady. I hope I’ll live long enough that she has some
memory of me. Words have a longevity I do not. I had thought I could leave her
a series of letters — but what would they say? I don’t know what this girl will be like when she is fifteen; I don’t
even know if she’ll take to the nickname we’ve given her. There is perhaps
only one thing to say to this infant, who is all future, overlapping briefly
with me, whose life, barring the improbable, is all but past.
That message is simple:
‘When you come to one of the many
moments in life where you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of
what you have been, and done, and meant to the world, do not, I pray, discount
that you filled a dying man’s days with a sated joy, a joy unknown to me in all
my prior years, a joy that does not hunger for more and more but rests,
satisfied. In this time, right now, that is an enormous thing.’”
(When Breath Becomes Air by Paul
Kalanithi © 2016 by Corcovado, Inc., Random House, New York, NY)
This
was an amazing act of TOV!
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to see more information like it..
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Monday, October 22, 2018
The Foundation of a Society of Shalom: Strong Gender Equal Relationships Built on the Sacredness of Life & Valuing “The Image of God” in Yourself and Others.
Shalom is a Hebrew
word that has traditionally been translated “peace,” but in the Hebrew language shalom means much more than “peace”
means to English speakers today.
Shalom does not have the passive, even negative,
connotation of the word “peace.” It does not mean merely the absence of strife.
It is pregnant with positive, active and energetic meaning and association. It
connotes totality, health, wholesomeness, harmony, success, the completeness
and richness of living in an integrated social milieu.1
Even today when Hebrew speakers meet or
part they wish each other “shalom” or
they inquire about each other’s “shalom.”
The foundation of a social environment of
shalom is strong gender equal relationships built on the sacredness of life and
valuing “the image of God” in others.
The
idea of a Society of Shalom first
appears in the Scriptures of Christianity and Judaism in the first chapter of the first book – Genesis 1 – in the account of the creation
of humans.
27 God created the ADAM in His image;
in the image of God He created him (the ADAM);
male and female He created them.
ADAM is the Hebrew
word that means “humans” in this
context. “The ADAM” is created “in the
image of God.” “The ADAM” is a “them” – not a “her” or a “him.”
● A
male is not the “the image of God.”
● A
female is not “the image of God.”
● Viewing
God as a male or female is not viewing the “image of God.”
● “The
image of God” requires a model that includes “both genders.”
In
this ancient text, living as “the image
of God” is the highest possible level
of human of achievement, fulfillment and happiness.
Males and females
living together in harmony as equals in a society of strong relationships built
on the Blessing of the Humans in the Genesis account.
The
foundational institution of a “Society of
Shalom” is “the Family.” It is
the most important and most sacred institution of a Society of Shalom. When God blessed the first two humans He created
“the family.” His blessing revealed His vision of the kind of family
the humans are to create, with instructions for males and females to fulfill their
roles and responsibilities.
● Life as part of “the image of God” is valued above “individual power and wealth.”
● Male and female are defined by the physical capacity to produce offspring.
● Male and female are equal genders in relationships and as members of society.
● Male and female are equals in the exercise of power.
● Male and female have equal rights and responsibilities.
● Male and female have gender specific unique functions.
● Co-parenting
their offspring is a very important role of male and female.
God’s blessing empowered humans
to successfully fulfill their roles and responsibilities. In the Genesis
account of the Flood, as well as in other biblical accounts where societies fail,
the primary reason for social failure is
the failure of parents to mentor and teach their children how to “subdue” their
Earth souls.
In
the Genesis account individual males and females have an Earth soul and individuals
can reflect the “image of an animal”
through their actions when their earthly soul
appetites, desires and longings drive their actions and they do harm to
human lives – their lives and the lives
of others.
● Animals are driven by instincts.
● Animals live their
entire lives in physical environments determined
by nature.
● Humans have
the creative power to change physical
environments.
● Humans have
the biological capacity to learn how
to control their impulses and exercise
self-control over their earthly appetites, desires and longings.
● Humans have
the power to individually and collectively protect
and preserve lives, make lives more functional and increase the quality of life
for themselves and others.
God empowered
humans to live lives at a higher and more fulfilling level than animals. Parents have been
endowed with the responsibility of mentoring
and teaching their offspring how to live at that higher level.
● Mentoring is demonstrating how to reveal “the image of God” through words and actions.
● Teaching is an ongoing process that uses situations that occur in the normal course
of life as teaching opportunities.
● Parenting is a lifestyle, not a program or
service that cannot be “subbed out.”
● Humans are biologically endowed to be mentored and
taught.
This
is the first blog in a series
I call, “Societies of Shalom.” Be sure
you do not miss future blogs by following the TOV Center Lives 1st Blog and/or “Liking” our Lives 1st
Facebook Page. Making our society better begins with making our families
better. We want to help you make your
family better -- and as more of us do that our society will become better too.
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1 Hebrew: The
Eternal Language by William
Chomsky © 1957 by the Jewish Publications Society of America, Philadelphia, PA;
p. 4.
Sunday, October 21, 2018
What the "Image of God" Really Means, God’s Parenting Model, Purposes of Life, Exercising Power & much more.
The Sixth Day of Creation is packed with instructions, principles and wisdom
most Bible readers are completely unaware of. Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor and Jim Myers discovered the things below, and more, embedded in
the Hebrew words of the account of the Sixth Day of Creation in
Genesis 1.
● Humans share an
Earthly soul with the animals.
● “The image of God”
is a “them” -- not a “him” or a “her.
● God’s model of “parenting.”
● Gender equality in
the ancient text.
● “Impulse control”
and “self-discipline.”
● God’s model for exercising
power.
● Purposes of life.
● Jewish &
Christian “images of God” are different.
● Judaism &
Christian Religions view history differently.
View the discussions between Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor
and Jim Myers about the Sixth Day of Creation by clicking on the links below.
To
see the complete list of videos for the First
Account of Creation – Click Here.
Share
and discuss the information in the videos with your friends too.
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Realities, Elephants & Riders
We
have an amazing opportunity to do something that no generation in the history
of mankind has ever done – be actively
involved in shaping the realities that guide our lives. It begins with
becoming familiar with the TOV Center Model
for Understanding Humans & Human Behavior:
Humans are genetically structured, realities guided,
social creatures that are dependent on other humans
for survival.
Everything we are as physical creatures is linked to our DNA. We are able to think because our DNA contained the instructions that produced the genes that were required to create the organ that is the biological control center of human life – the brain. Without a brain none of our organs would function. We would be dead.
The brain also controls the organs that
make us aware of the world outside of our bodies. That is the primary focus of
this blog. They combine to produce the navigation system that guides us through
life and keeps us from or causes us to bump into each other.
Objective & Memetic Realities
From
the moment we awaken in the morning, we are surrounded with a rush of light and
sounds and smells. Our senses are flooded. All
we have to do is wake up every day and without thought or effort each of us is immersed
in his or her unique irrefutable reality.1 We naturally assume that
our “irrefutable reality” is “the reality”
of the entire world. Why would anyone ever stop to consider there’s something
beyond that reality?2 Moving beyond our individual realities begins
with understanding this fact -- the brain
has no direct exposure or access to the world outside the skull.
Sealed
within the dark, silent chamber of the skull, the brain never directly
experiences the external world -- and it
never will. The gateways to the brain are the sensory organs.
Electrochemical
signals
from sensory organs dash through dense
networks of neurons to the brain. It feels as though we have direct access
to the world through our senses. Reach out and touch something. Although it
feels like the touch is happening in your fingers, in fact it’s all happening
in the mission control center of the brain. It’s the same across all your
sensory experiences. Seeing isn’t happening in your eyes; hearing isn’t taking
place in your ears; smell isn’t happening in your nose.
Biology
has discovered many ways to convert sensory information from the outside world
into electrochemical signals that travel to designated centers in the brain. Their
journey to the begin biological translation machines like these -- hair cells in the inner ear, several types
of touch receptors in the skin, taste buds in the tongue, molecular receptors
in the olfactory bulb, and photoreceptors at the back of the eye.3
We
only perceive a slice of the objective reality
that actually exists – what we are able
to perceive is limited by the biology of our sense organs. People think of
color as a fundamental quality of the world around them, but in the outside
world, color doesn’t actually exist. When electromagnetic
radiation hits an object, some of it bounces off and is captured by our
eyes. Humans are able to distinguish between millions of combinations of
wavelengths — but it is only inside our
heads that any of this becomes color. Color
is the brains’ interpretation of wavelengths and that only exists inside of the brain.4
Our slice of the
wavelengths we’re talking about involve only what we call “visible light,” a spectrum of wavelengths that runs from red to
violet. But visible light constitutes
only a tiny fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum — less than one ten-trillionth of it. We are completely unaware of
the rest of the spectrum because we don’t have any specialized biological
receptors to pick up on those signals. The slice of reality that each
species is able to perceive is limited by the biology of the sensory organs.5 No one’s “irrefutable reality” includes the entire
objective reality.
So
what does the world outside your skull really “look” like? If you could
perceive object reality as it really is, you
would be shocked by its colorless, odorless, tasteless silence. Outside the
brain there is just energy and matter. Over millions of years of
evolution the human brain has become
adept at turning this energy and matter into a rich sensory experience of being
in the world.6
Objective reality is the domain of facts. Individual
realities are the domains of memes
– pieces of electro-chemical information
that exist in the neural networks of the brain. The most powerful memes in
human brains are institutional memes.
It is essential that we make accurate distinctions between objective facts and institutional memes.
● Objective
facts exist independently of any
human institutions. Facts require the institution of language in order that
we can state the facts, but the objective
facts themselves exist quite independently of language or of any other
institution.7
● Institutional
memes are created in and
recognized as part of institutional memetic structures. Language is an
institutional memetic structure. Institutional memes consists of names, strategies, rules, laws, standards,
associative links, truths, beliefs, doctrines, creeds, covenants, opinions, games,
etc.
Scientists
now know that certain brain systems required environmental stimuli to develop
and that each neural system has a different critical period, or window of time,
during which it was especially plastic (subject to change) and sensitive to the
environment. Language development, for instance, has a critical period that begins
in infancy and ends between eight years and puberty.8
A
particularly important critical period lasts from approximately ten or twelve months
to sixteen or eighteen months, during which a key area of the right frontal
lobe is developing and shaping the brain circuits that will allow infants both
to maintain human attachments and to regulate their emotions. This maturing
area, the part of the brain behind our right eye, is called the right
orbitofrontal system. This system allows us both to read people’s facial
expressions, and hence their emotions, and also to understand and control our
own emotions. A mother who is with her baby during the critical period for
emotional development and attachment is constantly teaching her child what
emotions are by using musical speech and nonverbal gestures. For children to
know and regulate their emotions, and be socially connected, they need to
experience this kind of interaction many hundreds of times in this critical
period, and then to have it reinforced later in life. 9 We acquire memes from many
sources.
Elephants & Riders
The
brain operates on two levels – subconscious
and conscious. The subconscious level interprets and
responds to over 40 million nerve
impulses per second, while the conscious
level processes about 40 nerve
impulses per second. As an information processor the subconscious level is one
million times more powerful than the conscious
level and it contributes 95% of
cognitive activity.
Think
of the relationship of the conscious
and subconscious levels as that of a rider
on an elephant. The rider will go
wherever the elephant wants to go -- unless
the rider is able to coax the elephant to go somewhere else. Learning to be
consciously aware of activities of your elephant requires learning skills that
can involve the raider at critical times.
The
brain’s most important mission is survival and most of that activity takes
place at the subconscious level. The
elephant devotes lots of time and energy to predicting
what will happen next, so that the body will be ready for any contingency. Every
moment of your life, the brain is issuing thousands of predictions at a time --
based on your past experience. The
predictions that win are usually the ones that fit the situation in the next
moment.10
The elephant forecasts when your heart
should speed up or slow down, when your blood pressure should rise and fall,
when your breathing should deepen, and when you need more salt, sugar, water or
hormones, and attempts to meet those needs before they arise. It’s like running
a budget for your body, but instead of money, the currency is biological.11
The
rider, the consciousness level, gets involved when the unexpected happens and
the elephant needs time to work out what to do next. Consciousness isn’t just
about reacting to surprises; it also plays a vital role in settling internal
conflicts within the brain.12 Say you find yourself reaching for an
ice cream sundae, but you know that you’ll regret having eaten it. In a
situation like that, a decision has to be made. Consciousness is the system
that has this unique vantage point. It plays the role of arbiter between the
billions of interacting elements, subsystems and burned-in processes. This makes
it possible for rider to make plans and set long-term goals for the system as a
whole.13
Guarding Its
Beliefs
All
beliefs are memes and they play major roles in creating individual realities. The
elephant is the guardian and promoter of its most trusted belief-memes. It is
absolutely essential for us to be aware of this process in ourselves and others
when we are involved in conflicts and
disagreements. Below is the process everyone’s
elephants are actively engaged in as they predict what actions to take.
1. Searching for patterns in incoming
information that confirms its beliefs.
2. Distorting
and molding new information to make it fit its preconceived concepts or confirm
its beliefs.
3. Filtering out
information that doesn’t fit its preconceived concepts or confirm its beliefs.
We
are consciously unaware of the above subconscious activities. What a person
actually says to us may not be what our elephants let us hear. Think about that
for a moment. It is important to understand that the choices determined best by
the elephant aren’t always the one’s the rider would make for ethical, moral, religious or logical reasons.14
Herein
lies what science has to offer when it comes to human morality – science can tell us how our brains work but
not which decision we should ultimately make. That is the domain of social
institutions, like families, schools, religions, etc. Feeding our riders and
elephants a steady diet of time-tested values and wisdom principles is
essential to making sure our elephants stay on the best paths.
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SOURCES
1 The Brain: The Story of You by David
Eagleman © 2015, Vintage Books, New York, NY; p. 32.
2 The Brain: The Story of You; p. 64.
3 The Brain: The Story of You; p. 43.
4 The Brain: The Story of You; p. 63.
5 The Brain: The Story of You; p. 64.
6 The Brain: The Story of You; p. 37.
7 The Construction of Social Reality By John R.
Searle © 1995; The Free Press, New York, NY; p. 37.
8 The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph
from the Frontiers of Brain Science By Norman Doidge, M.D. © 2007; Penguin
Books, New York, NY; p. 52.
9 The Brain that Changes Itself; pp. 226-227.
10 How
Emotions Trick Your Brain: The Surprising New Science Rewriting What We Know
About Our Feelings
By Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett; BBC Science Focus, May 2018, pp. 45b.
11 How
Emotions Trick Your Brain;
p. 46a.
12 The Brain: The Story of You; p. 99.
13 The Brain: The Story of You; p. 99.
14 The
Truth About Trust;
p. 227.
Whose Image of God?
Humans
are created “in the image of God” is a
very important tenet of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity; but their understandings
of what “in the image of God” means are
very different. Since both views are based on the same scripture, we decided to
examine the ancient Hebrew text in which the phrase first appears. It is found
in the opening account of Genesis (1:1-2:4a),
specifically in the events of Day Six. Let’s allow that context to define the
ancient meaning of “in the image of God.”
24 And God said, “Let the Earth cause to bring
forth a living soul according to her kind; a large animal (cattle, oxen), small
moving creature, and wild predatory beast of the Earth, according to her kind.”
And it was so.
The
first thing God does on the sixth day is command
the Earth to bring forth a “living
souls according to her kind.” The Hebrew word NEFESh is the word translated “soul.”
The presence of a soul indicates the presence of life and the soul
is the source of a creature’s
appetites, desires, and longings. The soul the Earth brought
forth is for three kinds of animals which will have appetites, desires and
longings linked to the Earth -- large
animals, small moving animals and wild predatory animals.
25a God made the wild predatory animal of the
Earth according to her kind, the large animal according to her kind, and
everything that moves on the Earth according to his kind.
Next,
God made the three types of animals. After they were made, God measured His
work by the same standard He had used to measure His actions on the previous five
days.
25b
And God saw that it was TOV
TOV is a Hebrew
that is usually translated “good,”
but understanding the contextual meaning
of TOV in this account is very
important. TOV describes “acts that is beautiful and pleasing to God’s eyes because they protect and preserve
lives, make lives more functional and/or increase the quality of life.”
Acts that measure TOV are “lives centered
acts.”
Now
God turns His attention to His next creation.
26 And God said, “Let us make an ADAM
in our image, according to our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea, over the winged creatures of the air, over the large animals, over
all the Earth and over every moving creatures on the Earth.”
ADAM is the Hebrew
word that has the following meanings -- a human,
a man, mankind or the name “Adam.”
Be sure to note that in this context ADAM
is a “them.”
The
central focus in this verse is on the word “us” and it has been the source of many debates and heated disagreements.
For us, the first rule is always “view words in their immediate context,” which
in this case is the events of Day Six. In the creation of animals God and the
Earth were involved, therefore they are the most likely choices for defining the
“us.”
Actions
that are repeated in the same context in the ancient Hebrew text are not always
written over and over. Since the subject is still the creation of creatures
that will live on the Earth, God’s command to Earth to bring forth a living
soul for the ADAM was not repeated. The
part of the process that differs from the account about the creation of the
animals is recorded.
27 God created the ADAM in His image;
in the image of the Creator it created him;
male and female it created them.
Now
we know the meaning of “them”
– they are a male and female human.
1. “The ADAM” is created in “in His image.”
2. “The ADAM” is a “them;” not a “him”
or a “her.”
3. No individual
human is “the image of God.”
4. “The image of God” is a collective that requires the presence of both genders.
5. “The image of God” is revealed through
the collective actions of human males and females that do acts like Him.
28 And God blessed them:
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the Earth; and
subdue her;
and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the
winged creatures of the sky
and over every living thing that moves on the Earth.
29
Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of
all the Earth,
and every tree which has fruit yielding seed, it
shall be food for you.
30 And to every wild predator of the Earth and to
every winged creature of the Heavens and to everything that moves on the Earth
which has life, I have given every green plant for food.
In Hebrew, when God blesses something He empowers the thing blessed to do those things. The male and female are equally blessed
by God. Each is empowered to do the things God has blessed them to do. This
blessing is one of the most important acts of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, so
pay close attention to what God empowered you to do.
1. “be fruitful and multiple – The
male and female are empowered with fertility. They will produce creatures of their
own kinds through sexual reproduction. Their fertility does not depend on annual
rituals related to other gods.
2. “fill the Earth” – For humans, “making babies” is an easy act, but “filling the earth” takes years of commitment
and work. Unlike many animals, after being born human babies do not get up,
walk and start feeding themselves. Human offspring must be cared for and
protected from before they are born until they reach a level of maturity in
which they can do what is necessary to survive. Their physical and emotional requirements
must be provided for them – water, food,
shelter, clothing, protection, emotional support, affection, love, etc. They
must also be taught and mentored to learn how to survive and function in life
-- as well how to be parents of their future
offspring.
3. “subdue her” – “Subdue” in English means “to conqueror; to bring under subjection.”
The “her” is a reference to the Earth soul and “her” appetites, desires and
longings. Animals are controlled by their “earthly” appetites, desires
and longings” -- instincts control their lives. Humans are empowered to exercise impulse control and self-discipline. Fulfilling their earthly appetites, desires and longings must be done
in ways that measure up to God’s TOV Standard.
4. “have dominion” -- The English word “dominion” means “to exercise power over; to rule over.” The human male and female
are empowered to “exercise power as
equals” and “do it collectively.”
“Gender equality” is an inseparable
part of being creatures created “in His
image.” A note in The Hebrew &
Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, Volume 3 (p. 1190) about the meaning
of the Hebrew word translated “dominion”
sheds new light on how humans are to exercise power -- “the basic meaning of the verb is not to rule; the word actually denotes
the traveling around of the shepherd with his flock.” God empowered humans
to exercise power like a shepherd exercises
power over the animals of their flock -- power is exercised in ways that
measure up to God’s TOV Standard. This theme is repeated throughout Jewish
Scriptures.
5. “human diet” – The human diet is so important that God
included it in His blessing. Humans are empowered to eat plants that yield seeds
that reproduce their own kind and the fruit of trees that produce seeds that
reproduce their own kind.
6. “non-human diet” – The diet of
the other creatures are also important – creatures
of the Earth and the winged creatures of the Heavens are to have a diet that consist
of green plants.
Dr.
John Walton sums up important points about humans and their functions as
creatures created “in the image of God”:
● They have a function relative to God and the
rest of God’s creatures.
● They are to serve the rest of creation as
God’s vice regent.
● They are delegated a godlike function in the
world where He places them -- reveal “His image” through words and actions that
measure TOV.
● They have a function relative to each other
as males and females.
● They have a function to reproduce and populate
the Earth like fish, birds and animals.
God
set up the creation to provide for humans and other living creatures. The focus of the
first account in Genesis moves from
the divine realm, through people, to the world around them. In other words, the focus moves from God through “His image”
to the world in which He created.
“The image of God” is revealed through
God’s words and actions. People are to learn how to live by studying what God
said and did – and then imitate Him in
their words and actions. Their
mission is to learn how to apply God’s instructions, laws, wisdom and values to
situations they face in their lives and then take those actions. This is the Jewish view of the “image of
God.”
The
Christian “image of God” is very
different. It didn’t originate in the Middle Eastern culture of Jerusalem. It
came from the Gentile cultures of Alexandria, Antioch, Athens and Rome – it is the product Hellenistic thought.
In Christian
theologies God is viewed as a rational
being who
believes in human progress, more fully revealing Himself as humans gain
the capacity to better understand. The
focus is on progressively learning
more about God, themselves and the Creation through reason.1
However,
their differing understanding of “created
in God’s image” affects “their views
of history.” Judaism and Christianity both have sustained a directional
conception of history, culminating in an End of the Age event.
● The Jewish
idea of history stresses procession
-- legal interpretation rests on
precedent and therefore is anchored in the past. Today’s decisions are based on past precedents.
● The Christian
idea of history stresses progress
–God fully reveals Himself to humans as
they gain the capacity to better understand Him, therefore the focus is on the
future. We will know more tomorrow than we do today.2
Another
defining account in the Hebrew Scriptures, in which different interpretations have
a profound effect on the relationship of Judaism and Christianity, is the
account of the events that took place in a Garden
in Eden. We will let the ancient Hebrew texts reveal what happened there in
the next blog.
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SOURCES
1 The Victory of Reason: How
Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success by Rodney Stark © 2005; Random
House Trade Paperbacks, New York, NY; p. 11.
2 The Victory of Reason; p. 9.
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