Tuesday, September 23rd, 2003

Biblical Toddlers

Had some bizarre thoughts on the way to work this morning…

In the story of Genesis, Adam and Eve are only forbidden to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; after they eat that fruit, they are denied the tree of life. Apparently, one can either be self-aware, or one can live forever. Interesting choice, there. Is ignorance really bliss, then? (I wonder if Socrates was somehow offered the same choice, and this is where he came up with the idea that the unexamined life is unlivable. If you’re familiar with the quote in question, my Greek prof told us that “unlivable” is a better translation than “not worth living”…but I digress…)

It’s also interesting that Adam’s first reaction of “knowing good and evil” is “Oh, crap! I’m naked.” Not “Oh, crap! I’m busted!” or “Darn it, that was stupid.” How odd. Nudity taboos are completely and totally governed by social norms, usually in relation to the environment. From this, I’m forced to conclude that god and the angels all wear clothes….

Now here’s the really interesting part. My daughter just turned 6; her best friend and partner in crime is 5. They are both undergoing a similar transformation: they have both started to show signs of modesty “Don’t come in! I’m not dressed!” They have also both become aware of death and mortality, being struck by moments of sudden sadness for relatives who died before they really knew them. And these two awarenesses seem tied together somehow. And the “age of reason” that used to determine when a child knew right from wrong was usually set at about 7…. So what does this have to do with Genesis?

Well, consider the lillies of the field. They don’t spend their time worrying about death (okay, that we know of). Animals don’t seem overly concerned about death unless it is somehow immanently threatening. If you are unaware of the concept of death until you actually snuff it, doesn’t that give you a kind of immortality? Isn’t this the whole reason for Gilgamesh’s quest? Because he suddenly became conscious of his own mortality when his best friend died.

So now I’m wondering if “the knowledge of good and evil” is the same kind of self awareness that makes us aware of our own mortality, the same kind of self-consciousness that makes us realize that our behavior is different from that of others around us and maybe we should do something about that. If that’s the case, then, we can’t have self consciousness and believe we are immortal; they are mutually exclusive. Maybe the story of the fall is a metaphor for the development of the human psyche, an poetic expression of the rise of consciousness that makes us different from animals…and miserable.

Nah. It has to be verbatim, literal, factual history.

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