The garden of Eden exist

First of all, I refute that we are only debating the existence of a garden in Eden. There exist modern cities called "Eden," which have houses and gardens just like other cities [1], but that does not make those gardens "THE" garden of Eden. We are debating whether the Garden of Eden, as mentioned in the Biblical book of Genesis (see my opponent's round one case), actually existed, not some other garden. If it so happens that Genesis states that there was a tree of knowledge and a tree of life in the garden of Eden, then my opponent needs to have evidence proving this. Second, my opponent has put forward no evidence supporting his assertion that the garden of Eden actually existed. The best he could do is say that before the time of early civilisation, there is a gap of records concerning what we know, so tales are our best form of evidence. Firstly, great argument for the existence of Atlantis! Stories of mythical places abound in ancient folklore, and some are backed up by basic evidence - but it is the evidence that makes them true, not the story. Just because we have no other evidence does not make the little evidence that we do have good evidence. So why aren't stories good evidence? Firstly and most obviously, stories can be made up. It seems quite likely that stories such as the Eden narrative were invented to teach people moral lessons (such as - don't give in to temptation, don't trust snakes etc). There are other stories that clearly display this trope - for instance, the writings of Homer. Secondly, stories evolve over time. This is particularly true before the development of writing, where stories had to be memorised. As a result, stories were modified by retellers by making them more memorable. Thirdly, stories are changed to fit moral and religious norms. For an example, see all the different versions of the "Noah's Ark" story [2]. Fourthly, limited words create confusion. For instance, if I was to write today "I was born in Wellington," a scholar from the future might conclude that I lived in the United States, where there are more Wellingtons than in New Zealand [3]. In the same way, there is no way of knowing whether our modern interpretation of what the writers of Genesis meant is, in fact, the account that lines up with our modern-day evidence. That's why the biblical text itself is not good evidence for what went on during this time. In summary: my opponent has, as yet, not made an argument. What my opponent missed, however, is that aside from oral traditions, we have another way of assessing what people were up to back then. It's called archeology. Rather than hanging around in Gardens talking to animals, archaeologists tell us that before civilisation, people were hunter-gatherers who lived in caves and ate mammoths. They drew little pictures on cave walls, immortalising their hunting and gathering skills [4]. Some caves were even continuously occupied for over 100,000 years [5]. Sometimes they mined cool looking stones that they found in their caves [6]. They worked rocks into cool little sculptures [7]. If my opponent believes that the garden of Eden existed before human civilisation, he must reject that hunter-gatherer society existed before human civilisation. why? Because the narratives are mutually exclusive. In order to draw little people hunting mammoths, you need knowledge. But if humanity had not eaten of the tree of knowledge yet, it would not be able to produce these drawings. Therefore, my opponent must explain who was doing the mining, cave painting, hunting and sculpting, if not early humans, for his theory to stand. In any event, it's far from a "huge gap" if archaeologists are right. I have further counter-proof, but I would prefer to reserve it until my opponent has put forward his case in defence of the motion. Good luck! Sources1 - . http://en.wikipedia.org...2 - . http://en.wikipedia.org...(mythology)3 - . http://en.wikipedia.org...(disambiguation)4 - . http://en.wikipedia.org...5 - . http://en.wikipedia.org...6 - . http://en.wikipedia.org...7 - . http://en.wikipedia.org...