Monday, 2/16/15
The Bible’s story of Cain and Able, like Our Lord’s
parables, was inspired by God, but it was not factual. The Jewish storytellers
who gave us the tale of Cain and Able were shepherds, not dirt-farmers, so they
made a shepherd the story’s innocent victim.
Thomas Aquinas taught us that God is pure beauty, goodness
and truth. That rightly leads us to consider anything beautiful and good as
Godlike. Just as rightly, scientist, in searching out hidden truths, bring us
closer to God.
We should honor the Archaeologists who have meticulously
searched through the remains of ancient cities and camps, to uncover for us the
tools of the earliest civilizations.
They have found that up to 10,000 b.c. there were no
permanent camps. People, known as hunters and gatherers, were obliged to follow
the migration of animals and
the growth seasons of berries and wild grains. (Many old and very young
people were left behind in those wanderings.)
From 9,000 b.c. people in the Zagros hills between Iraq and
Iran domesticated sheep, keeping them in pens of rubble stones. From 8,000 b.c.
in Jericho they began gathering grain and planting it, using natural glass
obsidian for sickles. From in 7,000 b.c. they began making pottery.
We are not being irreligious when we doubt that story in
Genesis that pictures God making leather garments to cover the nakedness of our
first humans.
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