0041 Chapter three asks about the phenomena of the Lebenswelt that we evolved in. Does natural evil exist? Do the characteristics of natural evil change at the start of our current Lebenswelt?
00428 The answer is yes, to both questions.
If the single actuality2 is our current Lebenswelt, then the natural transition3H entails leaving the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.
Genesis 2:4-11 provides no evidence for the Lebenswelt that we evolved in. Adam and Eve are depicted as ab initiocreations in the Garden of Eden.
0043 Does the Garden of Eden contain something that associates to the Lebenswelt that we evolved in?
Well, it seems to me that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil associates to our current Lebenswelt.
Perhaps, the tree of life associates to the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.
The idea pops up in Looking at Mark S. Smith’s Book (2019) The Genesis of Good and Evil, appearing in the Razie Mah blog in January 2022.
0044 The tree of life is not in the middle of the Garden. It is somewhere in the Garden. Perhaps, it is everywhere in the Garden. This gives me a hint about the character of life in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.
If the tree of life is anywhere, then it is everywhere. I can imagine a world where people are alive because they have access to the tree of life. I look at the life of the people of the Developed Neolithic (Genesis 1:29-31) and the Upper Paleolithic (Genesis 1:28), stretching back through the creation of man (Genesis 1:27) and even the intention of man (Genesis 1:26) and I wonder, “If the tree of life is a metaphor for living in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, then what would its roots and its branches be?”
Well, it must be ourselves, both dead and living.
0045 The tree of life is a metaphor for the creation of humans as the images of God.
Thomas Aquinas offers a term for the state of human nature before the Fall. That term is “original justice”.
What does this imply?
Theologians may one day speculate how the tree of life, the image of God, and original justice complement one another as metaphor, evocation and philosophical attribution.
But, for Haarsma’s intersection, these theological images2V belong to a single actuality along with the long course of human evolution2H.
0046 Here is a picture.
0047 Are we the tree of life? Or does the tree of life bring us all into relation?
The Australian Aborigines talk of dreamtime. Dreamtime brings us all into relation, dead and living. The North American Plains Indians dance in circles. Circles bring us all into relation, including the living and the dead. Is the tree of life similar to dreamtime and dance circles?
0048 Comments on Clive Gamble, John Gowlett and Robin Dunbar’s Book (2014) Thinking Big conveys the importance of social circles in human evolution. Hominins adapt to the realness of triadic relations within social circles, such as family and intimates (5), teams (15), bands (50), communities (150) and (eventually) mega-bands (500) and tribes (1500). Each social circle offers adaptive advantages to certain sets of triadic relations.
Natural evil always threatens. Social circles keep us alive. The tree of life is rooted in our ancestors. The tree of lifebranches into our social circles, moving from present into future.