How many of us still believe that the Bible is literally “The Word of God” and that every word is true and incontrovertible?

How do we explain the many apparent contradictions and stories that tax our credulity?  How to reconcile, for example, the stories of Creation in Genesis with geological and biological evidence which posits that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old and that mankind is anything from 25 Thousand to 2 million years old?

Personally, I believe that the Bible and modern science are not  incompatible.  It was written by God, inspired people and reflects real & historical events as understood by the patriarchs and interpreted by them for their own people.

Let us bear in mind that their history was handed down by word of mouth for generations before they were able to write it down. I would beg any fundamentalists among you to bear with what I am about to propound and accept it as just another way of interpreting the events recorded in Genesis. The only difference is the time scale.

If we read the Old Testament carefully and do our sums, we cannot place Adam in History any earlier than 5400 BC.  But science demonstrates that mankind as such, has been on Earth for, give or take, one million years.

The Bible is equivocal.  Genesis says that Adam and Eve’s surviving sons, Cain & Seth took wives, and we can infer that these women were not their sisters.  So where did they come from?  Similarly, after murdering Abel, Cain fears exile from Eden for fear of attack as a fratricide from other people. Who?

Recent archaeological discoveries under the Black Sea show that the last Ice Age lasted ten thousand years and came to an end about eight thousand years BC.  The melting ice caused the Mediterranean to rise and break through the strip of land joining Europe and Asia to form what is now the Bosporus .  A few hundred miles to the North West there was a large fresh water lake known as Euxine (Hospitable Sea) where Neolithic peoples had settled and changed from hunter/gatherers to pastoral workers.

This lake was 450 feet lower than the Mediterranean and the salt water inundated their land at a rate of six inches a day.  This flow was the equivalent of 200 times the flow over Niagara Falls.  Lake Euxine was turned into the Black Sea.  The settlers were forced to flee.

The refugees went South East to an idyllic spot in what is now North West Iran between Lake URMIA and the Caspian Sea, where the modern town of Tabriz stands now.  One Clan that made that journey may have been led by an extraordinary man known later as RED EARTH man ie ADAM.

10 thousand years ago the Adamites arrived in what we now know to be EDEN, which the later Persians called PAIRIDAIZA (Paradise).  Eden still is sheltered on three sides by mountains and hills but is open on the West to the warm Med breezes.  This long narrow valley had a micro-climate encouraging dense vegetation and amazing varieties of fruit and vegetables “enticing to look at and good to eat”. GENESIS 2:9.

The area has changed climatically in the last 10 thousand years but is still beautiful and fertile with hot springs.  The earth is red ochre which the Adamites put to many uses, not least as an insect repellent hence ADAM the Red Earth Man.

EDEN was located with the help of geology and archaeology and the Bible itself.  Gen2:10 states that “a river flows from EDEN to water the Garden and from there it divides to make four heads”.  These four rivers are the TIGRIS, EUPHRATES, PISHON (Kezel Uzun), & GIHON(Gaihun-Aras).  Persian religion believes that its Founder ZOROASTER also came from this region.(PAIRIDAIZA).

Incidentally the layout of the forecourt of the TAJ MAHAL (designed by a Persian) represents the four rivers of EDEN and the SWASTIKA (Sanskrit) ‘Well Being’ is another symbolic representation.

Isiah & Ezekiel refer to “the Mountain of God far away to the N(of Israel)” from which ADAM was “cast down”. This mountain can be identified as MT SAHAND (10500ft) just South of EDEN near TABRIZ.

ADAM’S story in Old Testament was written to outline the ancestry of the Patriarchs and their origins as spiritual beings.  The story must be understood as having been passed through hundreds or thousands of years orally, and written and translated in several languages.  Given this background, like most of the Bible it is uncannily accurate.

Far from trying to question the veracity of the Bible, my aim has been to defend its accuracy by comparing it with modern scientific discoveries and attempt to reconcile it with the beliefs of those of us who cannot accept without question some things written thousands of years ago for simpler earlier people.