An odd bit of trivia

[valarltd]

Gen 3

17 Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.

19 Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. 21 His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. 22 Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of [g] bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.

Out of the line of Cain comes every major cultural and civilization advance.
Herding.
Music
bronze and iron working.

Is this to say creativity and technology are wicked?

Comments

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Of course they are. Man's sin was eating from the tree of knowledge, remember.

The way christianity was taught for a couple thousand years was that stinking was your punishment as was disease and famine. Women were denied painkillers in childbirth because it was their punishment for taking the apple, and ignorance was your lot in life.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

It wasn't the Tree of General Knowledge.
It was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Good and Evil really don't figure into working bronze.


The stinking really didn't get started until we lost Roman plumbing. Then someone decided that being naked was sinful, so baths were wicked.
And that lasted until Francis Bacon came up "Cleanliness is next to Godliness." (the Wesley brothers popularized it)

But yes the childbirth pain is explicitly stated as a curse on women.
Which is why I maintained for so long that not only was God male, he hated people.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Writing too.
Which I can believe, actually.

And it's interesting that while some scholars maintain that creativity is the spark of God in humanity, the only time imagination is mentioned in the Bible, it's preceded by "wicked."

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Cain's also the father of construction and architecture, it seems, since he "was building a city."

And living in tents seems to imply being able to make tents, so I'll say that Cain's line was likewise responsible for inventing tanning. Would you consider tool-making to fall in the category of engineering?

[oxbastetxo.livejournal.com]

Not really. Shoot, at that point, there was only Cain, until Adam and Eve had Seth and then other kids.

People were smarter back then. Adam and Eve were "perfect" until they ate from the wrong tree, despite God telling them they could have everything except that. They became less perfect after that, but still a heck of a lot smarter than us now.

Shoot, the Roman's had computers, robots, and coin operated mechanical things. The Maya who had calendars much more advanced than the things we have now. I forget which civilization had batteries.

We're not as smart as we think we are. ;-)

As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, "There is nothing new under the sun."

Though, to offer a diffrent point of view. Dancing, singing, making music, and generally "making a joyful noise" was always encouraged by God. So was a sense of humor. The Psalms state, "A merry heart maketh good like a medicine." ;-)

A sweeping generalization

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

But hasn't it always been: farming good, all else bad? And to parse it finer, herding animals and gathering bounty good, staying in place and farming crops bad?

Faith's fatal flaw, I was once told, came when mankind stopped following 'the natural order' and started to impose his will on the world. And it's all been downhill ever since.

[jlm121.livejournal.com]

We always get punished for reaching too high and using technology. Babel, the Walls of Jericho, and Sodom and Gomorrah, all examples of humans reaching a little to far and getting smacked down. Kind of makes God the father who wants his children to do well, just not better than him.

Simple, is often a word of praise when used as an adjective in the Bible. Jacob is probably on of the the most creative individuals in the Bible but gets his comeuppance from an Angel.

if you're doing the simple logic then yes, creativity and technology are wicked.

Course you know that movable type that helped print the Bible and spread the word. . . probably falls in that category too.

[nbrooks.livejournal.com]

Technology is the direct result of curiosity and creative thinking to solve problems.

Thinking creatively may cause the masses to doubt and question the elders, which takes power directly away from the church.

The church likes rapt followers who can always be tapped, generation after generation into giving their time, money, and trust unquestioningly.

Of course it's "wicked". :p