Many years ago my father-in-law gave a sermon similar to this, and I thought it was worth recording.
"Being a scientist and a minister, how can you reconcile the Bible stories, like the creation of Adam and Eve, and your ideas about evolution?" I always enjoying discussing things with my father-in-law, and wasn't afraid of offending him by my question.
"Chap 2-9. Genesis Chapter 1 is not a fable, but a guess at the order in the stages of creation, and a very intelligent guess it is too. Scientifically intelligent. The fables in Chapter 2 onwards have a different approach. Poetically intelligent. Different term. These deal with the great puzzles of the human situation. The first and greatest of them is why are there two sexes? Having settled that in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 moves to the second question. Why are we allowed to do wrong? Why do we have free will? The answer is hidden in the very imaginative invention of the story of the Garden of Eden.
"This is all about an experiment which failed. In Chapter 3 of the Bible it appears that men and women were in the first place puppets or near it and operated by God. We had no wills of our own and Adam at least was a docile law-abiding automaton. Eve however was different.
"This story is all about man's free will. Man comes out of God's control because of free choice and sin. When we were automatons or puppets not only did we have no sin, but no virtues, no character, so self-sacrifice, no kindness, no courage, no sympathy and worst of all, there was no love. Love must be given by choice. Puppets cannot love.
"It seems to me that Eve's choice to eat the apple and her persuasion of Adam to eat has not resulted in the human fall at all. It has raised man to a quite different level as a creature. It has given him responsibility for himself and his fellows.
"As the parable has the serpent saying 'In the day that you eat this, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good from evil.' If the human race had not made this choice I do not see how Christ could have been possible. Though quite against the usual view of the church, I do not regret Eve's decision. Indeed I will say, Thank God for Eve's initiative. If God had not wanted us to rise above our puppet status would he have put the Tree of Life in the Garden to tempt us?"
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...and so say all of us!
Written by Alice (64 comments posted) 16th November 2005 |
I quite agree. Thank you for sharing this refreshing point of view with us - it's fantastically feminist.
I, for one, am fed up with Eve being portrayed - in the name of religion - as a second-class sinner.
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Too random, not specific
Written by johniebg (538 comments posted) 6th May 2006 |
You try to make a point, quote chapter and verse from the Christian implementation of a Jewish text and then make generalisations. This is neither good writing or a point well made, and I just read this with an open bible at my side.
If you have something to say, just say it, use your own will to shape and quantify the words not random chapter selections. |
Written by Fledermaus (3229 comments posted) 2nd January 2008 |
Exactly. That's what the story was about: The apples gave them knowledge of good and evil. With that comes responsibility and hence they could no longer stay in paradise. Unfortunately people twisted that story during the centuries into one about disobedience and sin. Adam is supposed by some to have had a wife before Eve though (see some of Asferthecat's works about Lilith), and she was similarly deviant.
An interesting thing about Genesis is that so much has been made up around it later. There are probably more myths about it which are not in the Bible than there are which are in it. |
Written by Fledermaus (3229 comments posted) 2nd January 2008 |
Correction.
Oh, I thought Asferthecat had written a few pieces about Lillith, but I can't find them anymore.
Anyways, the story goes that before eve, Adam had Lillith, which unlike eve was created out of clay. As such, she was his equal and she demanded the same pleasure when they made love as he had. Yet Adam was apparently a bit selfish and sent her away from paradise. |
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