This is sort of like an FAQ section, but before any questions have been asked ^_^; These are just things I thought might be questions... so I decided to answer them, before they were posed.
Also: I just made a Staff page so that you can get aquainted with the site-workers (although ATM that's just me and Yellb.)
Q: What's the name "Outside Eden" all about?
A: "Outside Eden" is... a long story. While the site isn't religious, the name is somewhat derived from Hebrew legends. The short answer is, it refers to where our "mascot", Lilith, lives.
Q: Why did you choose Lilith as a mascot? Isn't she evil, anyway?
A: A few reasons outlined bellow, summed up as follows; She's a baby factory, she doesn't have labour pains, and the chances are she spends most of her time going about naked. As for her being evil or not... well, the way I read the story it really sounds more like she's being screwed about by Adam than anything else. He had his chance, he wasted it. There's no need to go branding people demons, now, just because you screwed up.
Q: What's the deal with the japanese stuff on the splash?
A: These are the lyrics to the third theme tune to "Fullmetal Alchemist". I put them up because I find the translation appropriate, somehow, because I'm a crazy freak.
Q: Why does an aethiest know so much about dogma? And why does he care about it?
A: To me, this all this Lilith stuff is just like a myth or a legend, the same as Zeus, Thor, Annubis, etc. etc. I have a big interest in all myths and legends, and I find this one particularly interesting, because of reasons I've already specified.
As the story goes, "in the beginning", 'God' made everything- the world, fish, animals, everything... Then he made humans. Some sources say he made Adam first, alone (I'm pretty sure this is the official Christian line, it may also be the Official jewish line, I'm not sure.) The way that story goes is that Adam, after seeing how all the other animals had female counterparts, became lonely, and asked god for a wife, which he produced- Lilith. The other version of the story is this; god, in something of a flight of fancy, created the first human as a hermaphrodite. Not the kind of hermaphrodite you see or hear about these days- this was more like... one half man, one half woman, literally. Stuck together- back to back. However, it quickly became evident that this wasn't a great idea- they couldn't walk very easily, and conversation was strained. Not to mention the fact that they couldn't procreate... but anyway, he split them and created Adam and Lilith, is how that story goes, coming to essentially the same point as the other one; you have Adam and Lilith, newlyweds.
So, Adam and Lilith, both made of the same Dust. Well, long story short they had a bit of a falling out. Adam wanted to be dominant- in particular, he wanted to be 'on top' in bed. Lilith was furious- they were created equally, why should she be treated as inferior to him? Their argument devolved until Lilith uttered the "Ineffable Name" (of god, I think) and was raised into the sky (i.e. she flew. I guess she has wings now?) and departed from Eden. She went to the area around the red sea, which was filled with demons. To them she bore "more than one hundred offspring a day" (although "hundred" and "day" are subject to interpretation.) As you may have guessed, this is the part of the story I like ^_^;
Meanwhile- in Eden- Adam is complaining to god (Adam has a lot of women troubles, most of which he solves by complaining to god. Wimp.) God dispatches three angels to retrieve Lilith from the red sea. They come to her, and ask her to return- she refuses (saying something like "How can I go back to that after experiencing this?" (sounds like she was quite nejoying herself...)) and they threaten to kill her. Lilith points out that she has been given charge (by god, or some other divine force) of all infants- i.e. boys up to the age of eight "days", girls up to the age of twenty "days" (if god gave her this charge, I'm assuming it was because he thought she'd be the mother of all humanity. Well, he was right in a way, I suppose...) She bargains with the angels, saying that if she sees their names (all three of them) on an amulet near any infant of said age, she'll let it live, otherwise, she'll kill it. The angels find these terms amiable, and agree not to kill her. However- some say that they did this bit under their original orders from god, I'm not sure- before they left they imparted a curse on Lilith, that every "day" one "hundred" of her offspring would die (good thing she's already having so many!)
This is all that's really important for matters here, that Lilith was the first woman, and one who got rather extremely pregnant. There are a few things to note though;