25 Aug '10 04:38>
Originally posted by FreakyKBHI'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, Freaky. Agriculture is not a step up from the hunter. It is the first step toward The Fall. I don't know what this "god-directed ritual" is that you refer to. Abel's animal sacrifice is not an animal sacrifice. It is symbolic of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle that is in harmony with both its own humanity and with nature. Cain's offering represents a post-agricultural lifestyle that is alienated from its own humanity and from nature. To be in harmony with ones own humanity and with nature is to be at one with 'god.' To be alienated from ones own humanity and from nature is to be estranged from 'god' and to live in a fallen state.
I feel like you started off with a workable thought problem, but you've gone off on a tangent that erodes the punch of your opening move.
You suggest that agriculture was a step-up from the hunter (despite the record from which you borrow to make the conjecture offering a decidedly different record), then insert some odd idea of the God-directed ritual ...[text shortened]... a little child
shall lead them."
Sometimes editing isn't the brightest thing to do...