Would you Adam and Eve it?

It falls to me to offer a kind of conclusion to our series on science and faith, by looking at one of the most argued-over stories in the Bible, the story of Adam and Eve. But, just like my introduction was only a sort of introduction, this will only be a kind of conclusion.

David Wallace in his talks has been very scrupulous about presenting as many sides of the argument as possible, and to emphasise that there are many ways to look at the issues he raised. However, I have neither the time nor the inclination to take you through all the various interpretations and arguments concerning the story. I will simply present you with my understanding of the story, and invite you to weigh up my conclusions. As ever, you are more than welcome to completely ignore what I have to say.

So, let me lay my cards open on the table from the start. I’m not going to get involved in the controversy over whether there ever was a literal pair of human beings, either called Adam and Eve or not from which we all descended. The fact is, I don’t actually care whether there was a literal Adam and Eve or not. The reason I don’t care is that the story doesn’t need to be about a literal Adam and Eve in order to be true. I know, that sounds contradictory, but it isn’t. Let me try to make it clear.

The story is true because it is the most accurate portrait ever written of us human beings, irrespective of who or where we are.

Let me deal with two reasons that people want the story of Adam and Eve to be literally true, at least as far as I can see. The first reason is that people use the story of Adam and Eve as proof that we are different from other animals. The other is that people think the story is necessary to talk about sin, by describing the moment original sin entered the world. Neither reason is very persuasive.

First, our difference to other animals. You see, to me it is perfectly obvious that we humans are different from other animals. If nothing else, we are self-conscious. By self-consciousness, I mean that we don’t just feel or hear or think, but we are also aware that we are doing so. To put it in an image, self-consciousness is that part of us that watches us as we talk and laugh and do things, almost like an external camera that watches us live our lives. Sometimes, that self-consciousness can become painful, embarrassing.

That self-consciousness is absolutely miraculous. Scientists have no idea how it came about. We haven’t yet identified a specific self-consciousness gene. We just know that it happened, and that it is connected to everything else we do.
We also do know, contrary to animal rights activists and such like, that we humans are the only beings on earth to have that kind of self-consciousness. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that animals feel, not just physically but emotionally as well. They feel pain, they feel grief, they feel anger. However, there is no evidence whatsoever that even the most advanced animals spend any amount of time thinking about their emotions. A dog might get angry, but it will never ask itself why it got angry, or whether anger was the right kind of response under the circumstances.

Second, we don’t need to know when exactly sin entered the world in order to know that it is very, very real. What the story of Adam and Eve does, you see, is not describe the very first act of sin in the world. It describes with astonishing clarity how we humans sin, all the time. That is why Adam isn’t Adam, one single real man. He is adam, the Hebrew for “male”. Adam is you if you are a man. Eve isn’t Eve. She is adama, “female”. Eve is you, if you are a woman. This story isn’t about people way back when. It is about you, now.

Let me then look briefly at how the story of first man and first woman describes sin.

The word “sin”, as most of you will know, was first used in the context of archery. To sin meant to miss the target when you were shooting at it with an arrow. Now, in order to miss a target, you have to define first what the target is you’re trying to hit. You can’t miss if you’re just blindly shooting arrows off into the wild blue yonder.

The same applies in human actions. The only way we can define how we human beings miss the target of how we should have acted is if we define what the correct way of behaviour is.

The definition offered by Genesis is quite simple: it is all about relationships.

One person alone, can’t sin. If, for example, you live on your own in a cave, you can’t steal – you can’t steal from yourself. You need at least one other person to be around in order for theft to become an issue. Or lying or cheating or jealousy or anger or any of the other emotions and actions that we have defined, over the millennia, as sinful.

Put differently, if someone I have never met and will never speak to is angry about me on the other side of the world, it would make no difference to me whatsoever. If my wife is angry at me, that affects me a great deal.

Why? Because at the basis of my relationship to my wife lies a contract, an agreement we have entered into with each other about how we will behave towards each other. We have agreed that we will treat each other with respect, with love, with care. To break that agreement is to sin.

Put like that, it sounds simple not to sin, doesn’t it? All I need to do, after all, is love my wife. That can’t be that hard. Then why does sin even enter into it?

Again, first man and first woman offer the best demonstration of how sin does enter into it, how sin enters into everything. They enter into an agreement with God. That agreement, not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, is based on a simple principle – don’t put anything above relationship to each other. Nothing else is more important.

Then they are offered the oldest temptation in the book. Satan whispers in their ears, “You might be in this for the relationship, you might be putting God first. But God isn’t putting you first. He just likes to keep you under his control.”
That temptation never changes. In all our relationships, we might start out putting the other above ourselves, above everything else. But soon, that whisper starts in our heads – what about me?

Why would that be sin? Surely, looking out for myself is just good sense. The problem is that when I look out only for myself, I turn everyone else into tools to accomplish what I want. People become objects I manipulate, love becomes impossible. God becomes a machine that pops out miracles and divine intervention whenever I press the right buttons. I become trapped inside my obsession with what I want, what I need. That self-obsession becomes destructive. Human society becomes impossible. All wars ever fought began with self-obsession, by one party if not both. The isolation brought about by self-obsession is the very definition of hell.

So, the fall didn’t happen to first man and first woman ages ago. It happens all the time, every time you or I put our own concerns and needs above those of others, when we put ourselves first, when we turn our gaze inward upon ourselves, away from others.

Fortunately, that isn’t all the story of first man and first woman contains. It also contains a record of God’s intervention. Yes, first man and first woman suffer the consequences of their sin, of their failure to hit the target of good relationship. But God acts to help them. He gives them clothes to cover their nakedness, in the first instance. But then he also makes a promise. He promises that a man will come who will break the hold of temptation over us, once and for all. As a result of what that man has done, we are able to call on God’s power to help us live right with each other, and one day, we will live in a world without sin whatsoever. I don’t know about you, but I quite look forward to that day.