A HISTORY OF INTELLECTUAL PERVERSION

to ethical principles in dealing with other human beings and refraining from all kinds of injustice and oppression. Along with this, God informed man that, although he appeared to be free, he was fully accountable to Him. God has a complete record of man’s actions. In the eternal life after death God would judge everyone according to this record. One who exercised his freedom wrongly would be thrown into eternal hellfire. Adam prepared tablets of clay on which he engraved the basic divine teachings, then heated them in a fire, thus preserving this divine guidance for the coming generations. It is believed that these divine teachings were written by Adam in the Syriac language. Adam died at a ripe old age. For a long time after his demise, his people continued to adhere faithfully to the divine guidance. But later, rot took root in the people. They took to worshipping nature and other human beings like themselves. People began to adopt the ways of injustice and oppression instead of justice and rectitude. After about one thousand years the perversion became so all-pervading that they were completely distanced from the path of monotheism as shown by Adam. Deviation from the True Path God subsequently sent Noah as His messenger. He was granted an exceptionally long life of nine hundred and fifty years. During this extended period, he continued to show people the right path, generation after generation. Only a few people heeded his words. The rest persisted in their sinful ways. Then, in accordance with the ways of God, a huge flood engulfed them by way of punishment. Noah and his small band of followers were saved in an ark, while all the rest were drowned. At that time, human population was probably concentrated only in the region of Asia known as Mesopotamia. The men and women saved in the wake of this flood settled afterwards in other parts of the world. Their race multiplied until it spread over the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe. After the death of Noah, his people continued for a considerable time to adhere to the divine path shown by him. But again degeneration God has a complete record of man’s actions. In the eternal life after death God would judge everyone according to this record. One who exercised his freedom wrongly would be thrown into eternal hellfire.