And if Origen is right, and it is absurd to suppose that the sun,
moon, and stars were not created until the third day, then the sacred
text is dislocated, transposed; and the second chapter narrates
events which really occurred before those mentioned in the first
chapter; and the "darkness" is something which came millions of years
after that "Beginning," in which God made the earth, and the heavens,
and all the host of them.
In conclusion, let us observe how fully the Bible record accords with
the statements of the Druidical, Hindoo, Scandinavian, and other
legends, and with the great unwritten theory which underlies all our
religion. Here we have:
{p. 340}
1. The Golden Age; the Paradise.
2. The universal moral degeneracy of mankind; the age of crime and
violence.
3. God's vengeance.
4. The serpent; the fire from heaven.
5. The cave-life and the darkness.
6. The cold; the struggle to live.
7. The "Fall of Man," from virtue to vice; from plenty to poverty;
from civilization to barbarism; from the Tertiary to the Drift; from
Eden to the gravel.
Pages:
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485