Original Sin!

~ Original Sin ~
A painting by Michelangelo
On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome
Left click on the painting to enlarge it

Back in the 1950's, when my brother and I visited our parents, who at that time were living in Rome, I made it a special point to tour the Sistine Chapel.

When I looked up at that “sacred ceiling” to view Michelangelo’s awesome paintings, my gaze was drawn to the tableau which depicted Adam and Eve sinning and being banished from the Garden of Eden. But what I saw, jarred me! Whereas I had expected to see Adam and Eve munching on the forbidden apple, the scene made it vividly apparent that Eve was being interrupted by the Serpent while she was engaged in performing fellatio with Adam!

How could this be? History tells us that Michelangelo and his Papal sponsor were in daily consultation about what was to be painted. So why hadn’t they stuck to the Genesis account of how Adam and Eve committed the sin that caused God to become so enraged? Perhaps, with the incisive clarity of two brilliant Renaissance minds, they probably felt it was more plausible for God to have reacted with anger when contrary to what He had so meticulously planned, He saw His two human creations engaged in a blatantly, non-reproductive sexual act. Wasn’t God’s afterthought to create Eve obviously predicated on the assumption that a female genital tract should be the natural recipient of male sperm, thus facilitating post-coital gestation in the woman’s womb? Clearly, continuing to reproduce humans by extirpating a male’s rib on every occasion, was not the way to go!

If the Pope and the Artist were correct in their speculation, then it helps to explain the rationale for baptism. In the act of submersing the human in “holy water” isn’t this an attempt to cleanse the “new soul” of the inherited stigma of its original progenitors, who, so soon after their creation, ostensibly infuriated God by actively performing an unnatural, un-procreative sexual act?

Please note: On April 18, 2005, I posted my first essay on this subject. It contains more theological content than this current posting. To access it, simply left click on April 2005 in the Archives listing.

Counterpoint: Atheist’s and Agnostics are disposed to dismiss all of the above as puerile much ado about nothing. The mathematicians among them would cite the indisputable fact that our planet earth, and all of the life it spawns, represents an incalculably insignificant part of our infinitely vast universe. Others unambiguously regard all of man’s religious and mythical songs and writings as the fictional products of actively fertile, skyward oriented minds. Particular exception is taken to religionists who arrogantly attempt to anthropomorphize our universe’s alleged creator.

Comments: mailto:domgab1914@comcast.net

Caro Domenico ~ I send this to you from our graves. Upon reviewing your commentary, Michelangelo and I concur. We believe that some parts of the Bible do not speak with the truth and crystal clarity, that we of the Renascimento possessed . Just think - if Adam and Eve had not done what they did, I wouldn't be lying here ~ Coraggio, Papa Giulio II