The Genesis Secret by Tom Knox

[Nancy]

Hi there all,
I have just finished a novel with the above title. It was very interesting. Alot of it was based on real archeological finds in Turkey but i'm not sure about the rest. But it got me thinking about faith etc.
It is about an actual site called Gobekli Tepe in Turkey (you can google it) in which was found megaliths (a bit like Stone Henge in England) and the dating was from about 10,000 years old.
The secret in the book is that invaders came from the North and took over the people living in Turkey (maybe the Watchers in the bible) and make them workers and the books premise is that this Gobekli Tepe was the garden of Eden.  The fall was basically when men had to start cultivating the land whereas before they were hunter gathers and lived in relative peace and leisure.
And then human sacrifice started because basically clever people are usually the leaders and are blood thirsty.
The strange thing about the site is that it was buried deliberately.  The books premise is that it hid this dark secret, that the genes of these cruel Northerners were mixed with Homo sapiens!  So according to this book religion is a myth that stayed in humans minds about a time when there were cruel lords over them.

Now this got me thinking, what if this book were true, that religion is man made, would i still have faith in an omnipotent God.  I have basically shunned the religions of man anyway, so this question is relevant.  If there were no sacred books what would our faith be based on?

Godbless
Nancy

[Beloved Servant]

Our faith is the living, breathing, Word of God Who reveals Himself to us through His Holy Spirit.
For me, denying that God is alive would be like denying that Cardinal is alive.
It would be a lie because I know that she is alive and well in Indiana at this very moment.

Faith is believing in the things unseen.
If you believe, then there is no doubt — they are opposites.

[Molly]

The fall was basically when men had to start cultivating the land whereas before they were hunter gathers and lived in relative peace and leisure.

Actually, from a strictly secular point of view it's just the opposite.  Once man could assure a good food supply for large numbers of people with modern agriculture, then you see the arts, the sciences, engineering, culture start to explode, almost overnight.  All of this is happening in Mesopotamia--'the birthplace of civilization'--right around the time that Adam would be leaving the garden whose location is carefully described in Genesis 2, and it's not Turkey.  How's that for a runon sentence?

If there were no sacred books what would our faith be based on?

Romans 1:20
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

[Beloved Servant]

"Guns, Germs and Steel" By Jared Diamond.
That was a hard read Molly,
Took me more than a year.
Very interesting but not a exactly an exciting "page turner."

[Molly]

"Guns, Germs and Steel"

Otherwise known as 'wheat, barley, and the domesticated animal'--the secret to our success.  Funny how so much of the new testament is concerned with these three subjects, isn't it?

But although I wouldn't want to go back to hunting and gathering, I must say just picking fruit off the trees in the garden is something I could go for.

[Beloved Servant]

Yes, it is a indisputable truth.


And, I never did understand the title of the book.
Guns germs and steel come far to late in the story.
Ours and the book.