Original Sin ?

Michelangelo's Version of Original Sin
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The Cardinals are about to elect a new Pope. Although during this conclave they will reside at Casa Santa Marta, their deliberating will again be done under the frescoed ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. And as on previous occasions when their glances drift upwards, their gaze will almost certainly come to rest on those panels showing Adam and Eve "sinning" and then being expelled from Eden.

The ancient Greeks believed that Athena, Zeus’s favorite daughter, sprang fully grown from his brow. The Bible says that Eve emerged as an adult young woman from one of Adam’s ribs. But whereas Athena had great wisdom, Eve was not endowed with great prudence. In seconds, she sinuously succumbed to the slithery serpent’s seductive suggestion that she should eat fruit from the sacred shrub and share it with her spouse. This led to their banishment from the Garden of Eden.

Although Hebraic theology attaches no profound consequences to that event, Christians extracted from it the concept of Original Sin. Quintus Tertullian, the theologian son of a Roman Centurion was the first to use that phrase. Soon afterwards, Saint Augustine, who in his Confessions asked, “Give me chastity and continence, but not just now” preached that the stigma of Original Sin is transmitted by human procreation. While baptism is practiced by many faiths, Christians believe that the cleansing waters of baptism help to wash away the stains of Original Sin.

Michelangelo’s cynicism led him to portray a much different scenario from that described in the Bible. Eve munching on an apple with Adam made no sense to him. With the tacit consent of his patron, Pope Julius II, he endeavored to show that it was the human misuse of sexuality that really angered God. The artist reasoned that Adam and Eve simply had no basic understanding of procreative sex. Their reproductive organs were divinely furnished but sans instructions. Viewing this flaw in His plan, God must have become upset with Himself. In effect, He had created two human adults who had no sexual knowledge or experience. But nevertheless, their summary ejection from the Garden worked wonders. Elsewhere they learned quickly how to reproduce themselves.

Except for those few cryptic phrases in Genesis, we have no other information as to what transpired in Eden. The scene conjured by Michelangelo was distilled from the cortex of his cerebrum. Was he given cues or directions? Who knows? But even so, no matter what other input flowed into his brain, Genesis is the book in which that event was first described. And not one photographer or reporter was there! There? Where? Does anybody really know where Eden was? Was there a Garden of Eden? In conclusion, the only sense that can be made of the sinning and expulsion panels, is that they were the products of a Renaissance mind and time.

Addendum: Viewed from any perspective, the Garden of Eden story is laden with symbolism. Parallels can easily be drawn between our own conception and birth and the creation of Adam and Eve followed by their expulsion. After our own emergence from Eden (our mother’s womb) we wander around, cord in hand, seeking to re-establish what in fact was never more than a peripheral connection to our alleged father. Whereas we should be striving to re-establish a more vital relationship with "Mother Earth" we embark on an endless search for that elusive male gamete. Along the way, we have created so many legends and mythologies about that phantom, that we now have as many "fathers" as we have different religions. And to our dismay, we invariably discover that each one of those "fathers" seems more disposed to obliterate us than to display any genuine affection or concern for us. The "gods" that so many of us so passionately worship, seem never to tire of hurling thunderbolts, floods, plagues and wars at us. I find it noteworthy, however, that in contrast to most other religions, Christianity did start with a loveable and benevolent mother figure, who stayed there right through her son's crucifixion, entombment and resurrection.