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I have deliberately not taken chronology into account in presenting my version. The Old Testament texts are steps in the construction of a religion; they do not reflect an accurate historical unfolding of time. Comparisons with the literature of other ancient (and older) peoples lead to the conclusion that the events chronicled in the Pentateuch could not have taken place in the period assigned to them by theologists. The Old Testament is a wonderful collection of laws and practical instructions for civilisation, of myths and bits of genuine history. This collection contains a wealth of unsolved puzzles, which religious readers have been striving to solve for centuries, but it also contains too many facts that are irreconcilable with the concept of an almighty, good and omniscient god. The central problem is: how can an omniscient god make mistakes? Can we really call a god almighty who, after creating man, says that his work is good, but a little later is full of repentance for what he has done? The idea of ‘original sin' also seems inconsistent to me. Surely god, who created man, must have known that his creations would be sinful? And if he did not know, how can he be an omniscient god? God punished not only Adam and Eve for the Fall, but all their innocent descendants as well. Yet their children's children had no part in the Fall; indeed, they knew nothing about it. Did god in his rage want to be propitiated by the sacrifice of the blood of the innocent? I doubt whether an infinitely good god has feelings of revenge. Nor do I understand why almighty god later allowed his own innocent son to be put to death in a gruesome way in order to forgive the whole world for its sins. When IJ ask such questions, I am not trying to denigrate or doubt the great religions. I only point out these contradictions because I am convinced that the great god of the universe has absolutely nothing in common with the 'gods' who haunt legends, myths and religions, and who affected the mutation All this wealth of 'literary' evidence reminds me of a sentence with which Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) concluded a lecture to a circle of illustrious philosophers : 'Gods' gave the chosen group an extensive knowledge of hygiene, medicine and technology. 'Gods' imparted the art of writing and methods of cultivating barley. Compare Genesis 1:31: ‘And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.’ With Genesis 6:6: ‘And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.’ The same god who had created man decided to destroy his work. And he did it often. Why? from animal to man.