Homosexuality and the Biblical Genesis: Were Adam and Eve gay?
In an opinion piece published in The Independent titled “Methodists decide to believe the Bible,” Michael Shannon reported that the Methodist Church recently voted to “return to following Christ and stop following the culture.” This vote was regarding a proposal to endorse homosexuality, homosexual marriage, and to accept homosexual pastors. The result of this vote by the church membership was to not accept any such change and presumably follow ancient biblical beliefs.
Shannon seems to be particularly pleased by this vote but also expressed his displeasure at what he considers biased media reporting of the vote. He is apparently offended by the progression of human thought in the past few thousand years, especially relating to any “alternative lifestyle.” As he states, “Rewriting the Bible is a project of the left, and it is purely secular and wholly selfish.”
He also offers up rather snide remarks about Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos regarding his recent marital situation and his new woman friend and seems to find his behavior unacceptable. I wonder if he feels the same way about President Donald Trump and his history of marital infidelity?
As the Biblical story of Creation goes, in the beginning, God created Adam “in his image” on the sixth day of Creation, and then Eve from Adam’s rib a bit later. There are two aspects of this I would like to consider.
First, the numerical date of this Creation was unknown until just a few hundred years ago, and at that time it was calculated to have happened approximately 6,000 years ago (4004 BCE). This date, which was calculated by Archbishop James Ussher in the 1600s, was then added to update the King James version of the New Testament in 1701.
No factual evidence exists to support Ussher’s calculations as he made assumptions based on limited historical data and on presumed but undocumented ages of the humans involved. Also, Ussher’s date is not part of the original or revised editions of the Bible. Instead, it was added approximately 2,000 years after the book was supposedly transcribed from the word of God. From this, I gather that within the Christian religion, it is legitimate to add to and revise the Bible. Therefore, it is apparently not the precise words of God.
Secondly, from the biblical description of Creation in Genesis, we are led assume that all humans must have been descended from the first humans, named Adam and Eve.
As noted above, in Genesis, the Bible describes Eve as being created from Adam’s rib. Eve, therefore, would have been a clone of Adam. That means both Adam and Eve would have had the same genetic composition (DNA). Therefore, they would have both been human males. How do we explain any offspring from this original pair of humans?
Any sexual activity between Adam and Eve would have been homosexual and incestuous, both considered sins by most religions.
So any current vote by any religious group to strictly follow the Bible would seem to me, in our modern world, to be misguided at best. This especially so if such a religious group uses that rationale to ostracize other people.
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
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Sorry, but that is true only in your fantasy world. Not true in reality.