Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [26]
Of course, science can’t speak of the creation, or even existence, of the soul…. The soul can’t be removed, weighed, and dissected, as human organs can.
Why not see the Creation in Genesis as a magnificent metaphor for the Big Bang, an event that science acknowledges but does not yet fully understand? Viewing the opening words of Genesis as a poetic account of this cosmic instant of creation, when matter essentially burst out of energy, doesn’t alter the essential “truth” of Genesis for those who believe it. As Robert Wright wrote in Time magazine in 1996, “Genesis isn’t just about the beginning of the human race. It is also about the beginning of evil—about how and why sin and suffering entered human experience and stayed there. And here the verdict of science is more ambiguous.”
The universe was created by some force—call it the Big Bang or God or Allah or Vishnu or simply Energy—that set in motion the cataclysmic string of events that brought the earth into being 4.5 billion years ago. So began the long line of chemical chain reactions that created the spark of life on earth. That miraculous process resulted in the appearance, a brief moment in time ago, of a two-legged creature that walked upright. This creature held tools in hands that were no longer needed for moving through the trees. He built fires and eventually held a sharp, pointed stick that made intricate symbols in pieces of hardening mud. It was the beginning of writing, the beginning of the Word.
BIBLICAL VOICES
Then the snake said to the woman, “No! You will not die! God knows in fact that the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good from evil.” (Gen. 3:4-5 NJB)
PLOT SUMMARY: ADAM AND EVE
Having made man (“adam”) out of the dust (“adamah”) and brought him into existence with the “breath of life,” God places man in Eden, warning him not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, threatening death if he does. Then God creates the rest of the animals to keep him company. The man names these animals but still doesn’t have a proper partner. God then causes the man to sleep and removes one of his ribs—humanity’s first “takeout ribs”—and forms woman.
The man and woman are naked in the Garden, unashamedly enjoying sex (“they became one flesh”). Along comes the serpent (“more crafty than any other wild animal”) and the woman is convinced to eat from the forbidden tree. The serpent promises her that she will be “like God,” or “gods,” depending on the translation. The woman agrees, then gives the fruit to the man and he eats.
Their eyes now open to their nakedness, they feel shame and sew fig leaves into loincloths and try to hide from God. Out for a stroll, God finds them hiding and asks who told them they were naked. The man quickly establishes the human tradition of finger-pointing by saying, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
God is not happy. It is the first of several biblical moments in which he will wonder if this “man thing” was such a good idea after all. But instead of starting from scratch, God gets mad. Then he gets even. The serpent is cursed to crawl on his belly, and there will be permanent hostility between snakes and people. The woman will suffer the pain of childbirth and be ruled by her husband. (We know a man wrote that!) Instead of invoking the death sentence promised earlier, God curses the man to a life of hard work. Then the First Couple gets kicked out of the Garden.
Were there really apples in Eden?
Apples are supposed to be good for you. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” You’re supposed to bring an apple to the teacher. And what’s more wholesome