I think the serpant thing would be a great sub-plot. I am not even sure how it would be addressed. I am sorry I have missed a few of the exchanges with Bob, lorn and the others. I guess the biggest thing I am starting to see is that we are discussing the "Eden" plot from the stand point that we are seeking truth; and as we all know, archeology is the search for fact. So what facts do we have that supprt a Tree of Life theroy?
1. The tree of life, as presented in the Genesis story is that tree which would allow man to live eternally. As lorn pointed out, in our current state, that would mean imperfection.
2. DNA holds the code that could/would provide us with the ability to allow for the creation of a perfect strand, without any blemish.
3. DNA looks like a ladder, but I won't stray OT by tieing it into the Jacob's Ladder theroy of ascending into heaven.
4. Now that our wisdom (received with at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) has allowed for cloning, is it possible that we could clone God? This may also be off thread, but if we assume the DNA present on the Shroud of Turin in that of Christ, couldn't we clone him, have that embro put into the womb of a virgin and thereby create a souless Antichrist?
I realize that this strays a bit from traditional archeology, but when the Brother of the Cruciform Sword had the knowledge of the Grail, they didn't retrieve it. Who's to say that in the fifties, there isn't some American Government agency that knows that Armageddon is possible, and guards such a volatile piece of history. Even an indirect connection can be seen. This also gives weight to the McCarthy hearings, and Communism brought up in similar threads. Heck, they could even split this story in two and film it all at once...=)
I just think that archeology, theology, history, philosophy all run together, hand in hand.