More and the utopian dreamFor some it can be heaven, for someone else a paradise on earth, and for still others it can mean the Garden of Eden, the New Jerusalem or even the Biosphere 2. What we have come to know as "Utopia" or "Any idealized place, state, or situation of perfection; any visionary scheme or system for an ideally perfect society" (Neufeldt 1470), is just a name that has been coined to us by Sir Thomas More for an eternal idea. There were centuries of utopian ideas before More came up with his idea of ​​Utopia, but he became the father of the meaning of the word. Some of the earlier ideal ideas served as sources of information for More's book, just as More paved the way for hundreds of other utopias. Today Utopia is just another word in the dictionary, but it took years to develop into what it is today. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth... and it was very good" (Gen. Bible Cap. 1, vs. 1, 31). According to biblical doctrine, the earth was in a perfect state after God created it. There was no sin and the two inhabitants were pure in thought. The Garden of Eden is the first known utopian state. Ezekiel said that the Lord himself called it "the Garden of God" (ch. 28, vs. 13); God, being the supreme of all the perfect, could only have a perfect garden. But even the most perfect things, it has been shown, cannot be perfect forever; this is the way God planned it. There must be opposition in all things, so Satan was allowed to come into play. First Eve and then Adam ate from the tree of knowledge, a sin in the eyes of God. But this was God's plan, and it paved the way for the rest of the world. A little later in the Bible we discover the last... half of the leaf... lliam, ed. Interpretations of utopia in the twentieth century. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Neufeldt, Victoria, ed. Webster's New World Dictionary of American English. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1988. “Sir Thomas More.” Luminary. Online. Internet. http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tmore/htm. November 16, 1997. Ventures in space biospheres. "The Biosphere Project 2 - A laboratory for global ecology: the experiment proceeds with a new crew." September 1993. Online. Internet. http://www.biospheres.org/newcrew.html. November 22, 1997. Tarnas, Richard. The passion of the Western mind: understanding the ideas that have shaped our worldviews. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991. Tod, Ian, and Michael Wheeler. Utopia. New York: Harmony Books, 1978. “Utopia.” Catholic Encyclopedia. Online. Internet. http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/15243A.htm. October 25th. 1997