Adam, Eve, and Original Sin
K and I had occasion recently to discuss Adam and Eve, if you can believe it. I had mentioned some post I'd seen alleging the reason for all the stupefying anti-women BS coming out of the GOP boiled down to the Christian fundamentalists' position that "Eve F*#$ed up back in the day and now we gotta control women to make sure they don't mess up again!"
So for the past few days this has been something of a joke around the house, where if a topic came up where it seemed women tend to get the short end of the stick, I'd playfully say something like "Well that's what you guys get for getting everyone kicked out the garden!". Mind you neither K nor I are particularly religious, but it's an interesting exercise in armchair philosophy + lulz.
Today K sends me an IM while I'm working to pose the idea to me that "Maybe the truth was not in the fact that Eve tempted Adam with the apple but rather that Adam was susceptible to the temptation..". She went on to posit that yes Eve ate of the fruit, but she was "deceived/beguiled by the serpent", whereas Adam hadn't and thus had less excuse. This got me to thinking, but as I've little familiarity with the bible, I looked up an online version to do some checking. From what I gather, the bare facts were these.
1. BOTH Adam and Eve already knew they weren't supposed to be eating of the fruit of the Tree of Widsom - God had already told them.
2. Eve ate of the fruit after she was deceived by the serpent.
3. Adam ate of the fruit after his wife gave it to him.
The lesson derived here, as I responded to K, was that, although Adam was the FIRST man to be more afraid of his wife than God, he was certainly not the last.
So for the past few days this has been something of a joke around the house, where if a topic came up where it seemed women tend to get the short end of the stick, I'd playfully say something like "Well that's what you guys get for getting everyone kicked out the garden!". Mind you neither K nor I are particularly religious, but it's an interesting exercise in armchair philosophy + lulz.
Today K sends me an IM while I'm working to pose the idea to me that "Maybe the truth was not in the fact that Eve tempted Adam with the apple but rather that Adam was susceptible to the temptation..". She went on to posit that yes Eve ate of the fruit, but she was "deceived/beguiled by the serpent", whereas Adam hadn't and thus had less excuse. This got me to thinking, but as I've little familiarity with the bible, I looked up an online version to do some checking. From what I gather, the bare facts were these.
1. BOTH Adam and Eve already knew they weren't supposed to be eating of the fruit of the Tree of Widsom - God had already told them.
2. Eve ate of the fruit after she was deceived by the serpent.
3. Adam ate of the fruit after his wife gave it to him.
The lesson derived here, as I responded to K, was that, although Adam was the FIRST man to be more afraid of his wife than God, he was certainly not the last.