Let's talk about Adam & Eve

Our Hero looks into the claims made by Joseph Smith about Adam, Eve and, The Garden of Eden. He does his best to reframe the story so that it can have a new significance.
Here is a link to 2 nephi 2: www.churchofjesuschrist.org/s...
FAIR's Article on the belief in a literal Adam and Eve: www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/a...
Sources where the church has taught that Adam and Eve were the first Humans:
Mark E Peterson "Adam, the Archangel," Ensign, Nov 1980, 16
Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p 184.
Nature Article: www.nature.com/articles/s4159....
Email me: [e-mail]

[@ubermormon9611]

I used the word ancestor backwards in this video but it’s too late to change it:)❤

[@dansaber4427]

What you say makes sense. People started worrying about tomorrow and Jesus says don't worry about tomorrow. Have faith in God if you're not of the world. Jesus raises the standard of what it means to be religious. Living courageously is more heroic than worrying about your self-preservation.

[@DoctorWithoutDogma]

Joseph Smith’s claim that Jackson County is the location of the Garden of Eden was literally the first item on my “shelf.” I was taking an evolutionary biology course at BYU at the time this was an issue for me. Just before class one day I suddenly found my “urinal buddy” to be the professor teaching the course. It took everything in me, but I broke the agreed upon silence and asked him what he thought about the location of the Garden of Eden. He had no qualms telling me that the not only was the Garden not where Joseph Smith said it was, but furthermore it did not exist as a literal place, nor did Adam and Eve as literal people. Mind blown. Thank you sir. I think he knew and played by the “meta rules.” Enjoy your videos, hope it takes off!

[@ubermormon9611]

Thanks for being here! And thank you for sharing!

[@thelastgoonie6555]

It always bothered me that Adam and Eve had to leave the garden so that "Man may be"...my Catholic friends growing up all said Adam and Eve prevented us all from living in Eden by sinning. I asked a BYU professor why Adam and Eve couldn't have children and he speculated (NO JOKE) that because they did not have blood running through their bodies, Adam couldn't have an erection...so erectile disfunction is the answer. lol

[@danvan2683]

It's cool your still trying to make sense of some of the religious stuff, Adam and eve is a tough one, it's an architypical story that's legitimately old, it's not unique to the Jewish sources. Applying our modern assumptions kinda by definition yanks it outside the scope of any original formulators worldview but the idea it's survived and we are talking about it is amazing.

[@ubermormon9611]

If you’d be willing to write up some of the assumptions I am making I would appreciate that respectful push-back.

[@danvan2683]

@@ubermormon9611 the traditions from roughly Genesis one to eleven are preserved oral tradition from who knows how long ago, you could assume the geneologys are accurate and guestimate but my thoughts are that running those traditions through a modern worldview with questions that wouldn't even make sense to someone from those cultures maybe misses their point. My favorite scholar on these types of issues is Michael Heiser, if you haven't heard of him he's worth checking out, he has hours and hours of lectures online you would find interesting I'm sure.

[@matthewlake1910]

I like the to new filter/look! looks nice, bright and clear

[@mikelray3965]

Very well said.If only we could understand critical thinking in our youth we could avoid a lot of problems.

[@mikelray3965]

@LDS yes I have a low IQ, that exactly why I joined the mormon church.

[@Mustardmanor]

I wish there was more room for non-literal scriptural interpretations in the LDS church. By having everything be literal and historical, it doesn't fit with science. So people take a less logical path and exclude those who think about this as allegorical.

[@thelastgoonie6555]

100% this makes sense and I believe Jordan Peterson has pointed out a similar turning point when mankind learned to sacrifice the present for future benefit. His OT/Genesis lectures are great.

[@jc1619]

Interesting perspective!

[@ubermormon9611]

Glad you think so!

[@kaitlynnkenney9140]

Have you read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn? It has a really interesting interpretation of the origins of humanity and how the stories we tell about that origin shape our culture, with a focus on the Adam and Eve story. I read it as a young teenager and it has always stuck in my head, and I think you might appreciate it based on this video.

[@ubermormon9611]

I’ll check it out! Thank you!

[@krisfisher8274]

I love logic.

[@ubermormon9611]

You and me both!

[@cinnamondan4984]

Years of Catholic School failed to instil in me the understand that the Catholic Church does not mandate a literal Adam and Eve. The notes of the NABRE (2011) are curiously more academic than theological. Recommend checking the translation out and its footnotes.

[@DancingQueenie]

Change of subject. I’ve been thinking about 3 Nephi and the earthquakes and three days of darkness etc. I’ve read the FAIR response that god was disgusted with the wickedness of the people and was forced to punish them - like any abusive father. And he was apparently really sad his son died. But let’s put that aside. There were plenty of people in Asia, Russia, Cuba etc who might’ve been just as wicked, so what about them? Any evidence that any of that destruction happened in “the 34th year”? Any place?

[@ubermormon9611]

You bring up a lot of good questions here that I have never researched. It IS weird how often God come across as jealous and abusive under the Mormon framework.

[@nute742]

Cool Video. And good questions. I understand how could 2 people populate the entire earth (before the flood) and even after the flood how could noah + his band of 8 people? (which I guess is more relevant since that is where the remnant of Adams seed came from and where we are today). So here are some thoughts: (1) Perhaps Adam and Eve (since they lived around 900 years of age) could multiple better and more than say if they only lived 40-70 years. Also perhaps there were 'more" people not mentioned in the bible also had been sent down to bear children too (not mentioned) sorta like when Lehi left jerusalem and then they went back to get women to marry their sons (daughters of Ishmael). So these two things could help bridge the gap (other people sent down to populate the earth + long life spans). Now as for "after" the flood - I guess we'd have to "calculate" how 8 people grew to a projected world population in those years as well too. I guess a favorite quote (from Jurassic Park) from Malcolm the mathematics guy says "Life finds a Way" (or also we could say "God" finds a way). Okay anyway food for thought on an interesting subject.

[@ubermormon9611]

Thanks for your thoughts. Interesting point about Adam and Eve having more years to reproduce. The issue remains that two people with DNA which would remain the the same during a longer lifetime. Would still need more variety to create a healthy population.

[@nute742]

@@ubermormon9611 Yes very true. Good to hear back. Perhaps there were others too. The bible and scriptures we have today are amazing but a lot of info is still left to be seen.

[@SukunaIsAGod]

The fruit Eve ate was a banana. That's why she slipped and fell. Ate it, slipped and landed on it.

[@ubermormon9611]

This is a profound truth.

[@Max_Johnson]

I think I heard the joke from Radio Free Mormon aka RFM.

[@thuggie1]

You can also get from it the way that both Adam and Eve had to make things work by cooperation in creating a better world through the seat and labour of brow. In a away it show that nothing comes easy. And when you read the original hebrew, you see that literally the Adama was at first fully unified with Eve as one enity. This is why in the text both know not to eat from the tree even though Eve was nit separated from Adam at this point. Which also brings you to the idea of bringing things together that make you whole.

[@brittneykirk4030]

Your videos are awesome, you need more followers! Follow urban Mormon he knows the way.

[@ubermormon9611]

That’s very nice of you thank you!

[@davidjanbaz7728]

Check out Dr.Michael S.Heiser videos on Genesis 1-11: he makes it so much clearer than a hyper literalist interpretations.

[@ubermormon9611]

I will thank you!!

[@kristinajohansson5099]

I love your interpretation!

[@ubermormon9611]

Thank you!

[@stelladavis7832]

Except it doesn't say Adam and Eve were Hunters, or that word "hunter "is used. There was apparently no death in the Garden, so how could they hunt animals? so that therory is kinda moot. Now maybe you meant after the fall they became hunters? But it was Cain and able who one was a farmer while the other hunted, so doesn't show a transition as it was both going on and it seems those two were more about showing the reader the roles of murder, obediance, sacrifice and being a brother's keeper. I don't think it happened at all, and I think the simplist explanation it's just a morality tale that was added in decades later and wasn't even the first story to be written in the bible.

[@bryancsimmons]

Fantastic, I came to a lot of the same conclusions. You can also apply the same reasoning to polygamy. Why would God try to raise a righteous seed this way? Couldn't it introduce a bunch of genetic problems? It seems like there isn't a lot of potential for genetic diversity.

[@kaitnaylor06]

Brilliant theory! It is extremely plausible, makes sense to me, especially when compared to other creation myths. What do you think about the part about it being Eve's "fault" that they got kicked out of the garden?

[@ubermormon9611]

This is a really good question and I’ve never even thought of that. I’ll chew on it for a while. Let me know if you have any breakthroughs!

[@kaitnaylor06]

@@ubermormon9611 your theory has made most of that story ‘click’ for me now. But why did the serpent talk to Eve? That part of the story never made sense to me. What are we supposed to learn from it? It seems like many people take it to mean that women are inherently flawed, which is odd to me because no man would exist except that he came from a woman. Then God punished her with painful child bearing. Wtf? They only bit of info coming to me regarding this is that once hominids evolved to stand erect, this made child bearing more difficult. I’d have to find a credible source, but I know I’ve read that other mammals don’t have nearly as painful/complicated birthing because their pelvis is shaped a certain way due to them walking on all fours. Hominids were/are the only mammals that are bipedal, and this greatly affects the shape of the pelvis & birth canal.