Jared Diamond's book "Guns, Germs and Steel" assembles a diverse array of scientific discoveries to explain the dominance of Western civilization in the world. He claims that the the disparity among human societies is a product of environmental differences, not cultural or racial differences.
He starts by showing that humans were hunter-gatherers before they developed agriculture, and that the key to civilization is agriculture. In turn, the keys to agriculture are plants and animals that can be domesticated for food and work. Domesticable plant and animal species are not evenly divided around the world; hence, civilizations are not evenly dispersed.
Civilizations require plentiful food to allow some members of society to focus on things other than producing food, such as developing technology, writing, and the arts.
This is a must-read book with lots to discuss, but I want to focus here on how Diamond's concepts are reflected in the scriptures.
Bible. The creation accounts (Genesis, PoGP) describe God creating animals, including "man," during the sixth day. Here is the Genesis account:
26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 ¶ And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
(Old Testament Genesis 1:26 - 31)
This description of the commandment to these creatures reflects a hunter-gatherer existence. While it does speak of subduing the earth, there is no indication of agriculture per se. The humans were given the animals and plants for food, just as the beasts and fowl were given the plants for food. Then the sixth day comes to an end.
The next part of the creation account relates an additional creation. God rested on the seventh day. Then he noticed that "there was not a man to till the ground." (Gen. 2:5) This despite having created "man" in the sixth day. So God created Adam and planted a garden where he put him.
The new man, or Adam, differed from the previous men because this new man was created to "till the earth" from within a garden. Hence, the advent of agriculture and civilzation that Diamond describes in his book.
In another post we will discuss the introduction of moral agency and responsibility that attended the creation of Adam.
In a separate post, we will also discuss the relevance of Diamond's work on Book of Mormon studies.
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