Goldilocks and the Garden of Eden

Answers in Genesis, a prominent young earth creationist organization, recently published an article titled Why Did God Create Weeds?, by Erik Lutz. Exploring this article, and the reasoning Lutz employs, offers an opportunity to examine the evangelical approach to the Bible—and how it differs from the approach generally taken by most mainline Christian denominations.

Lutz sets out his question as follows:

Before sin entered the world, God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it (Genesis 2:15). Did their work include pulling weeds? Well, yes and no. Adam didn’t have to worry about noxious weeds taking over. However, he probably needed to move and trim plants as part of caring for the garden. So weeding—removing unwanted plants—was likely on the to-do list.

In my experience, pulling weeds can be sweaty, tedious work. But in God’s original creation, all work was enjoyable and not difficult. Even now we get glimpses of this kind of happy work. Quietly picking weeds out of my raised-bed garden can be quite a relaxing way to spend a mild summer morning.

Did Adam and Eve have to deal with weeds? Lutz attempts to answer this question for his evangelical readers. To the non-evangelical reader, this is not a question that immediately seems important, but to young earth creationists, questions like this are very important. They’re important because if the Bible is inerrant and Genesis is reliable history, the stories told there have to be approached as literal truth, not figurative, not a story with deeper meaning, not a narrative people long ago created to explain the world around them—literal, actual truth.

Sadly, work became arduous when God cursed the ground because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. As a result, some weedy plants like thistles and nettles developed painful or irritating defense structures that were unnecessary before sin.

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. (Genesis 3:17–18)

Lutz is dealing with several problems.

First, Genesis 3 states that toil and pain game into the world only with the fall. Before sin entered the world, these things did not exist. Yet God commanded Adam to tend the garden in Genesis 2:15: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” How is it possible that Adam could have worked and tended a garden without toil and pain?

Second, Genesis 3 states that thorns and thistles only came into existence when sin entered the world after the fall. But not all weeds have thorns and thistles. What about invasive species like dandelions? Wouldn’t various unwanted invasive species have created problems for Adam as he gardened before the fall, even without thorns and thistles?

Lutz solves his first problem by de facto stating that, while Adam and Eve would have pulled out certain plants before the fall, such work would have been pleasant and pain-free at the time. Lutz attempts to solve this latter problem as follows:

Many of the same kinds of plants that are now considered invasive weeds (or their predecessors) were growing in God’s original creation, each masterfully designed for its ecological niche. Dandelions, spineless thistles, and even crabgrass—all were in perfect balance with the rest of God’s creation. Since God cursed the ground, that harmonious balance has been disrupted, and weeds often take over other less-assertive plants.

This is a rather creative reading of Genesis 3.

The Flood of Noah’s day also drastically changed the balance of plant and animal life on the earth. Many species that were populous before the Flood became extinct afterward, and brand new ecosystems formed. Opportunistic plants replaced the niche of those tender species that did not survive the Flood and its aftermath. Plants have specialized for their particular niches and locations. This means invasive species, whether introduced purposefully or accidentally by man, can monopolize whole ecosystems and drive those native species to extinction.

This, too, is creative: Lutz reads the Flood into the story and offers it as an explanation for invasive species. Probably, he says—without a shred of actual evidence—plants like dandelions were not as much of a problem before the Flood, because, probably, the Flood killed off some species and left an opening for plants like dandelions to become invasive in the way they are today.

Why do I draw attention to Luzt’s article? It’s not outrageous in the way that Answers in Genesis articles claiming that Neanderthals were descendants of Noah’s, who evolved distinct differences in the course of a few hundred years before dying out. Compared to Answers in Genesis’ claims about the geological timeline, Lutz’s treatment of weeds is fairly tame. I draw attention to Lutz’s article because it points to some important truths about the underlying evangelical approach to and understanding of the Bible.

While mainline Christians frequently approach large swaths of the Bible as myth and story, evangelicals do not. A mainline Christian does not need to take time to dwell on whether it would actually have been possible for Adam to garden painlessly before the fall, because the important part of the story of the Garden of Eden and the fall is not the details, but the overriding message. Focusing on the details would be like asking why Goldilocks was taking a walk in the woods in the first place—and did her parents know what she was doing?

But evangelicals don’t approach the Bible as story or myth. They approach it as inerrant historical fact. For evangelicals, how Adam could have gardened before the flood without experiencing pain or toil takes on great importance, because if Adam could not have gardened painlessly, then evangelicals’ contention that the Bible is inerrant and factually accurate would fall apart.

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