The Religion in Me–Adam and Eve

It is easy to discount the Bible, especially the stories of the Old Testament, as inconsequential or even flat wrong. Because to believe in the literal Word of God means you have to believe in talking snakes and God’s voice thundering down from the clouds. You have to believe that stoning people is a good way to run a society. You have to believe that Romans are impure. You have to believe that women are second class citizens. Etcetera, etcetera. It’s also easy to discount these things as old ways of doing and seeing things. But us humans have evolved and we don’t stone people, and we don’t have to believe in talking snakes.

Surely, God did not create the Earth six thousand years ago. And of course Adam wasn’t the first person. So most people, myself included for a long while there, simply considered old Bible stories as just ways for people from another era to come to terms with reality without the luxury of science.

But if there are truisms in the Bible–and I think there are (see love thy neighbor)–then wouldn’t it be prudent to assume that all of the Bible is true. I mean, if us humans evolve, then wouldn’t it be simply fair and just to assume that our understanding of the Bible should evolve, too?

(Frankly, this goes for any book. I imagine a 30-year-old JRR Tolken fan can see more symbolism in The Lord of the Rings than he could at age fourteen, whether or not the author considered the use of symbolism.)

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I think Bible stories exist on two major levels (and a million smaller levels in between). The first level is the literal level. These stories were passed down orally for generations until someone decided to write them down. Someone wrote down the story of Adam and Eve, for instance, as a way to explain where humans came from. When the story originated, it no doubt made perfect sense that God created the Earth and sky and humans. (Surely, upon looking at the world and the stars and the sun and the seas, these people figured it all had to be created by a creator. How? Well, that’s where the story of Genesis comes in.)

But at it’s core, even for literalists, the story of Adam and Eve is a symbolic story. And now that we have science telling us that the creation story could not have literally happened the way the Old Testament says, we are free to see these symbolic meanings as the more important meanings. And dare I say that if there is a God–and I’m a believer–then this freedom to see symbolically was all part of the plan . . . from the beginning . . . whenever that was.

So, the second way to see the Bible is spiritual and sometimes mystical. Obvious enough.

In Genesis, it says that the serpent told Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge even though God said that this was the one tree she and Adam were to avoid. Eve told Adam to eat of the Tree and so he did.

Lo and behold, after they eat of the tree they realize that they are naked. Why? And why does it matter?

Well, my son is two years old. He runs from the bath and jumps around naked. It wouldn’t matter if the Pope were holding Easter Mass in my living room, my boy would not think twice about prancing nude through Holy Communion. My boy, you see, is living in the Garden of Eden. He doesn’t know any better and he shouldn’t know any better. He needs to remain in the Garden of Eden while his mind and consciousness develop, with the aid of–yikes–his parents.

But a day will come when my son will realize that dancing around naked in front of anyone, even the Pope, is no way to go through life. He will, eventually and all in good time, become aware of the world around him.

Adam, then, is not the first human, but he could represent the idea of the first human becoming conscious. He could also represent the idea of humanity becoming conscious. He could be a manifestation of God in the world. The first one, a manifestation marking an incredibly important stage in human evolution–the birth of human consciousness.

The snake represents man’s basic instinct. Eve represents man’s spiritual reality, his soul. In this story, the two are in line. The time to eat of the tree of knowledge has come.

If it was always part of the evolutionary future that man gain awareness, then the basic instinct would push us to get to this future. And man’s soul, our spiritual reality, would be ready to respond.

The man who wrote the bible story simply explained all this as best he could given his surroundings and history and understanding. In the story, God casts Adam and Eve out of the Garden. But maybe that seems like a punishment because, frankly, living as if you’re the center of the universe–like a two-year old–is really fun. Having responsibilities, at first, seems like punishment.

For example, my son doesn’t know the real difference between being naked and being clothed. So running naked into Easter Mass is not his fault. (That would be mine.) But when he gets old enough to know the difference between right and wrong, then it will be his fault. If he runs naked into Easter Mass as a 22-year-old, then it will be his fault. And, I’m sure, this would be a sin. Getting dressed is no fun. But it’s necessary, if you want to evolve as a human and do some good in the world.

The story of Adam and Eve, then, is a simple tale of the day when humans became conscious of what is right and what is wrong.

Another possibility, and I think there are endless possibilities, is that the tree of knowledge represents the human world, the snake is attachment to this world, and Eve is the human soul. Adam is the human spirit–how a human acts in the world. The sin mentioned in Genesis is the sin of attachment to this physical world. This is the sin that only becomes possible when man knows the difference between the physical and spiritual worlds. The sin is going against God’s wisdom in the name of personal freedom and liberty and curiosity.

Another way to look at all this is that God, in Genesis, represents society or the elders in tribal society. They tell the people what to do and what not to do. Adam and Eve going against the elders is an act of rebellion that is considered sinful. Yet, when they do this, they are rewarded with the awareness that they were naked. Then the elders cast them out, and Adam and Eve have to make it on their own. This sort of rebellion is necessary. Each of us must break out on our own. If we want to serve the age in which we live, we have to betray some aspect of it. In the story of Adam and Eve, what they are betraying is conformity for the sake of conformity.

When we do this, we find out who we are and what we’re really made of.

Today, I can think of dozens of ways we’re asked to conform that ought to be betrayed. Materialism is one of them. And as fate would have it, materialism is at the heart of the story of Noah, which I’ll get to in an upcoming blog post, for all three of you loyal readers.

As for why any of this is important or even worthy of writing about, well, if Jesus came to teach us how to see reality through the lens of spirituality, then maybe the bible is the most fertile ground for this endeavor. Maybe we ought to heed his advice when it comes to reading books that are considered holy and and full of spiritual lessons. And maybe it would even cause us to stop taking the easy way out–mocking what we consider silly, which I think I’m kind of good at–and gain a better appreciation of stories that might be myths, but might still hold some eternal truths nonetheless.

When it comes to Adam, I think he represents the first of several stages each human and humanity as a whole must go through. The next stages are represented by people you’ve probably heard of: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. And then there are a couple more.

I plan on getting to all of this in all good time.