In Judeo-Christian religions, the place in Genesis where Adam and Eve originally live. Contains the Tree of Knowledge. When Adam and Eve eat from the Tree, they are banished. Since then, an angel has stood at the gates with a flaming sword to keep people out.

This is the Garden, hack. All of this.

To put it better: when God slapped Adam and Eve down on this bit of rock and grass, they did not yet know what good and evil were -- they did not know that some things were good and some bad; they did not yet know that some things were perfect while others were imperfect -- they did not have the power( the flaw?) to see the imperfection in the world around them and thus, their world was perfect.

When they gained knowledge from the tree, they necesserily banished themselves from The Garden of Eden for now they could see the problems inherent in the world, they could see that they would die eventually, they could feel pain, and they found for the first time that they had trouble communicating even between themselves.

In a very real way, the story of the Garden is a story of man's gaining of sentience and the beginning of human knowledge -- it is the point in history when mankind stepped from the animals... the point where moonwatcher touches the monolith to you 2001: a Space Oddysey buffs out there. The Garden is all around us, but we traded it for civilization. We traded perfection for freedom.

The Garden of Eden is generally considered to have been located in Mesopotamia, an area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This area is, indeed, now part of Iraq. Mesopotamia is in the Fertile Crescent, so it's understandable why the ancients considered the place to be Heaven on Earth.

Personally, I prefer the Land of Nod, which is East of Eden.

Intriguingly enough, the Garden of Eden is noted for it's great abundance of flora and fauna.

When flora and fauna die and are buried they form... petrochemicals. Oil, that is. Black Gold.

Now... If we were to look for the largest source of oil in the world, we'd say the Middle East, which is, curiously enough, the area in which the Garden of Eden would have existed.

Perhaps you see the connection here? If there really was a Garden of Eden, and it was denied to humans (by, for instance, burying), then what would the evidence be? Lots of oil.

That's where I think the Garden of Eden is. In your gas tank, and your plastic toy - it's all gone to oil.

(When do I think this all occured? During the Flood, of course... when else could you bury a freekin' huge garden thousands of feet under the ground?)

Eden is a Sumerian word, translated as steppe. In other words, referring to the Garden of Eden is basically calling it the garden of the savanna wasteland. Mind, not that I believe in an historical garden of paradise, but the origin of the myth points to the wilds of Sumeria.

In this sense, the paradise lost was the drive of the individual from the wilds to the creation of society and civilisation. Origin of evil? I wonder what Hobbes would say about this.

If i remember my Dante, his cosmology claimed that the Garden of Eden was on the top of the Tower of Purgatory, diametrically opposite Jerusalem.

Of course, his cosmology also claimed that the stars and planets revolved around the Earth, and that the entire southern hemisphere was covered by water except for the island of Purgatory... but at least he accepted that the Earth was round, right?

(note: please forgive the representation of Earth as a hexagon)

          
     _______+______
    /  \    H    / \ 
   /    \   E   /   \
  /      \  L  /     \     <-- Hemisphere of Land
 /        \ L /       \
/          \ /         \
\           *          / 
 \          |         /
  \         |        /     <-- Hemisphere of Water
   \        |       /
    \_______|______/
         \Purga/
          \tor/
           \y/
            *  
 -----------------------

A Garden of Eden pattern in John Conway's Game of Life is a pattern which is not the successor generation of any other pattern.

Some patterns are the successor generation of many other different patterns. For example, a 'pattern' with all dead cells is the successor of a pattern consisting of one live cell; the same pattern is the successor of a pattern consisting of two live cells. This pattern:

OO
OO

is the successor generation of itself, and it is also the successor generation of this pattern:

O.
OO

Garden of Eden patterns, however, are patterns such that no pattern will generate them. There is no previous state which will become a Garden of Eden pattern (ever). The name is a very appropriate one - it suggests that the patterns are 'supernatural', the result of a Creator which does not have to work within the Laws of Physics.

One Garden of Eden pattern is the following:

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OO.O.OOO.OOO.OO.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O
O.O.OOO.OOO.OOOO.OOO.O.O.O.O.O.O.
OOOOO.OOO.OOO.OOOO.OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
O.O.OO.OOO.OOO.O.OOO.O.O.O.O.O.O.
OOOO.OOO.OOO.OOOOO.OO.O.O.O.O.O.O
.OO.OOO.OOO.OOO.O.O.OOOOOOOOOOOOO
OO.OO.OOO.OOO.OO.OOOO.O.O.O.O.O.O
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Source: Glossary.doc, A Brief Illustrated Glossary of Terms in Conway's Game of Life, compiled by Al Hensel, and some example files found on the Web.