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First, Man. Then, Adam!

First, Man. Then, Adam! [Paperback] Irwin Ginsburg

122 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1978

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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
372 reviews2 followers
August 11, 2022
Dr. Ginsburgh attempts to apply logic and science to the Biblical creation story, but still doesn't. Essentially, his claim is that the long lifespans of the early Biblical characters is due to the fact that they were aliens ("space men") who were sent to Earth, and then Cain, Abel, and Seth bred with pre-existing indigenous people of Earth to create what is now the Human race...oh, and Noah's kids also bred with the indigenous people who survived the flood (which I thought killed everything/one not on the ark, but whatevs) and that's why we have short lifespans, 'cause we are not spacemen anymore...or like 0.1% spacemen. Of course, there's no logic applied to God or the creation of the Earth/universe - it's just "God Did it!". How did Adam and Eve get here? On a spaceship. Where did they come from? The Pleiades (yes, they are from the Pleiades, which the author implies is also where God lives). Oh, and God is the one who sent Adam and Eve to Earth to begin with....because....um....well....because....oh, look, we're out of time...
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690 reviews10 followers
March 19, 2009
Entertaining concept. Not just man then Adam, but aliens too!

I recently re-read this book. Going through old stuff and decided to breeze through this one again before I got rid of it. Such a quirky concept that I'm not iffy on getting rid of it. Did I mention that he thinks Adam and Eve were aliens? Awesome. Anyway, I thought I would expand my review of this book. Good times, good times.

A really quick read. I guess it doesn't take too many pages to get into aliens. Amazingly, he takes his time getting to the point. Takes over half of his book to mention it. Which sounds more shocking that it really is. It's just over 100 pages. Double spaced. Large font. Crappy drawings. Stuff he made by hand, or when he was feeling dandy, on his Atari in between 18 hour caffeine induced Pong binges.

Some real gems in his book come on the inner dust cover combined with the last page. The dust cover; "This books is probably the most startling, yet carefully documented, explanation ever made concerning creation." Yes, Dr Ginsburgh, you and your research assistants must have been extraordinarily fatigued by the massive amount of documentation you did in order to come up with ELEVEN references. Which, bringing this full circle, is the last page of his book. References. All eleven. One of them is about black holes. The other, not to be bested, is about fruit cultivation. Gotta have a robust knowledge of fruit harvesting if you're gonna talk about the apple that brought upon humanity original sin.

My other favorite quote shows up in his Epilogue. "There has always been agreement between the Bible and the social sciences with regard to morality." I immediately think about Jerry Falwell and scientists holding hands and singing kumbaya around a campfire while "agreeing" on topics about, oh say ... stem cells, abortion, existence of a soul, gays and general sexuality, gender equality, race equality, stoning people, burning witches and free speech ... to name a few off the top of my head.
11.6k reviews42 followers
September 2, 2023
WAS THE GARDEN OF EDEN A SPACE SHIP THAT CRASH LANDED?

Author Irwin Ginsburgh wrote in the Preface to this 1975 book, “The many spaceflights, both unmanned and manned, which have occurred in the past decade, have changed the thinking of a great many scientists with respect to interplanetary and interstellar travel. In view of the reality that such flights are more than imagination, it is now possible to re-interpret some of the allegorical sections of the Bible and to place them into a credible book. In this book I have employed various facts from the fields of astronomy and archaeology to verify many of the earlier sections of the Bible (from the ‘beginning’ to Abraham). Previously it had been thought that there was far too little information to verify the earliest sections of the Book of Genesis. However, if the rest of the Bible is factual, perhaps the first part may also be equally reliable. To achieve my goal of verifying earlier parts of the Bible, I introduce the … concept of a ‘Black Hole'… I also believe it to be equivalent to ‘the deep’ which exists at the start of the Book of Genesis (1:2).

“Then I explain how and why science and the Book of Genesis are both probably describing the same set of events in the evolution in the Universe and of man… I am able to equate the appearance of modern civilization with the start of the Book of Genesis. This is accomplished by means of one fundamental assumption by means of one fundamental assumption---namely, that the Garden of Eden was a spaceship which carried two ‘superior’ people, and that it crash-landed on the Earth.

“From this follows plausible answers to some of the most perplexing age-old questions about the Bible… My theory shows that science’s version of Creation and the Book of Genesis version of Creation are so similar that they could both be talking about the same set of events. This means that thousands of years ago, the historical who first recorded the Creation in the Book of Genesis, knew at least as much about the details of Creation as modern science. Furthermore, that historian provided a reason for the Creations, whereas modern science does not!” (Pg. 3-4)

He outlines in the first chapter, “By intermeshing the very latest in scientific concepts with the related evidence found in the Bible’s first book, we will find that a remarkable fit exists. To accomplish this objective, I will make but one major assumption---one concerning the Garden of Eden. This assumption, however will be amply justified. A final result will be several very interesting and unusual answers to some of the most difficult biblical questions which have plagued mankind for thousands of years. These include: 1) Where were wives obtained for Adam’s sons? 2) Why did Adam and his early descendants live more than 900 years? 3) What happened to Enoch? 4) What is the earliest reference to the Messiah? 5) Why was circumcision included in God’s covenant with Abraham? 5) Why did the life span of Adam’s descendants fall dramatically after Noah?” (Pg. 6-7)

He states, “The ‘Legends’ [‘Legends of the Bible’] claim that Adam either visited or passed six other worlds before he reached the Earth (see Chapter 8 of this book for more details)…” (Pg. 13)

He says, “The words used in the Book of Genesis represent the best thinking and understanding of its compilers. For instance, their explanation of a modern scientific idea would be obscure to us since they did not have our technical language upon which to draw. If twentieth century technical synonyms are substituted for some of the general words in the Book of Genesis, it becomes possible to understand sone of the obscure passages in this fundamental work in terms of modern day science.” (Pg. 22-23)

He asserts, “Man, the most highly developed land animal, is at least one million years old, and have been uncivilized for most of this time. Civilized man appeared suddenly about 6,000 years ago… This 6,000 year figure becomes a crucial number in tying together science and the Book of Genesis. Notice its closeness to the Hebrew calendar which presently is more than 5730 years old. 5735 in 1975 is the count of the years since the start of the Book of Genesis.” (Pg. 53)

He explains, “Here I make the one major assumption of my concept---and that is, the Garden of Eden was a space ship that crash landed on the Earth, and that it carried two superior space people, Adam and Eve. We can find supportive evidence for it in the Legends, specifically the section on the Inhabitants of the Seven Earths. There we are told that there are six other Earths, that Adam visited the first two Earths, and that he bypassed the next four on his way to our Earth… Is it merely a coincidence that a legend thousands of years old speaks of seven Earths, and that astronomically our Earth is the seventh planet as we approach the sun? It must be remembered that the ancients who wrote the material found in the Legends did not have telescopes and could not have known about the three farthest planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. For some reason, the space ship carrying our two space people crash landed on the Earth, because Adam and Eve had to leave it and live on the Earth among the Stone Age inhabitants… Adam and Eve must have been superior space men by comparison with the uncivilized Stone Age people who inhabited the Earth at the time… But a real space man should have had some remarkable gadgets, such as the shamir, the cutting tool which reportedly could cut diamonds, and which Solomon used in building the Temple. The Legends refer to a God-made suit of clothes, worn by Noah’s grandson Nimrod, which made the wearer invincible and irresistible… Finally, the space ship itself carried a tree of knowledge and a tree of life. These are true space man devices!” (Pg. 62)

He suggests, “There are other obscure passages in the Bible where the limited understanding of the observer resulted in a distorted description that is not immediately understood by a modern sophisticated reader. Reinterpretation of other such passages may uncover more evidence of space ship activities. Now that we can see how the space ship concept serves to explain several sections of the Bible, can it be used to explain other more perplexing passages? For example, can a space ship which made a light landing with flaming, braking rockets appear as a bright star that crossed the night skies? Could this be the explanation for the Star of Bethlehem? Furthermore, the presence of a space whip could help explain many of the miracles in the New Testament, including even a Resurrection.” (Pg. 81)

Later, he adds, “For example, two of Noah’s descendants, Shem and Eber, ran a school which Isaac attended. This school could have been a repository for a library filled with undreamed of knowledge. Can we find the site of this school?” (Pg. 84)

He proposes, “Additional effort should be expended in a search among the inhabitants of our World for people with even slight concentrations of supernatural powers (for instance, with the ability to communicate with God). Finding authentic individuals may be very difficult because there will be an overabundance of fraudulent claimants. However, the discovery and development of persons possessing these powers may be helpful for the future of mankind.” (Pg. 86)

He concludes, “I offer you this challenge: Reexamine the Bible and find out for yourself now its teachings are relevant to your life today!” (Pg 112)

This book may appeal to those seeking integration of ‘ancient astronauts’ with the Bible
632 reviews7 followers
March 1, 2024
As a matter of fact, this book is interesting if you like AA theory, it is quite obsolete now, but if you like me, appreciate reading the early efforts of the theory, this book adds up to it. It is small and interesting, a good read, but all the theories are kind of old and obsolete, the real deal is Sitchin anyway.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews