Before you read any further, I’d like you to stop for a second and get something straight in your mind. Christian, agnostic, or atheist, what is your understanding of the Bible version of the origin of man (and woman)? Please think about this carefully before you read on, and have a clear notion of the answer in your mind.
Good, well done. Now let’s destroy that clear notion. (It won’t be difficult).
Some of you will probably have the notion that Man was created by God on the Sixth Day of Creation. Good, 7 out of 10 (because that’s only one Genesis version). But what about Woman?
Well, Woman was created from one of Adam’s ribs, wasn’t she? Well, yes and no. It depends on whether you read Genesis Chapter 1 or Chapter 2. If you read Chapter 1, then Man and Woman were created at the same time (on the sixth day) and no removal of ribs was required. If you read Chapter 2, then Man was created sometime after the seventh day and Woman was created later as a kind of afterthought, from one of Adam’s ribs.
How’s your clear notion now?
Just to “clarify” matters, here’s how the origin of Man is described in Genesis, Chapters 1 and 2 (you can check the verses here):
According to Chapter 1 –
On the third day, God made grass, herbs and fruit trees
On the fifth day, God made sea creatures and birds
On the sixth day, God made cattle, creeping things and beasts. Also Man (male AND female). God told man and woman to be fruitful and multiply, and gave them dominion over fish, birds and every living thing on earth.
According to Chapter 2 -
God created the heavens and earth in six days and rested on the seventh. But there are not yet any plants or herbs, because there was no man to till the ground. God then created man out of the dust of the ground (but hold on... wasn’t man already created on the sixth day, along with woman, according to Genesis 1 ??? I’m confused...)
God then created trees.
God then formed the beasts of the field and birds of the air, out of the ground (but birds were already made, on the fifth day, weren’t they??).
God then belatedly realised (after planning and executing the creation of the entire universe) that Man needed a companion, so he formed Woman, from one of Adam’s ribs.
CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS RUBBISH??? On the most fundamental subject in the whole of creation,
the Bible is a mish-
Here are just a couple of obvious points that arise from this mess:
If the Chapter 2 version (Adam formed from dust, Woman formed from Adam’s rib) is the one to be believed, then we have to wonder a bit about the nature of Adam, and God’s plan for the procreation of the human race. In this version, it is clear that God’s original intention was just to make Man alone. Woman had no part in the original plan, she was just added later when God realised that Man needed a companion. This being the case (and this is serious question) – Did Adam have a penis and testicles? If so, why? At the point that Adam was created (in this version), God had no thought about Woman, so why would he need them? There’s nothing in Chapter 2 that suggests that Adam’s anatomy was rearranged or added to (apart from the removal of a rib) when Woman came along. In similar vein, what was Eve’s anatomical construction, and why? We have to assume (as the human race is still here) that she came complete with all the necessary reproductive apparatus, despite the fact that Adam logically did not. This version of the story is just so laughable that it’s just not worth pursuing any further.
The Chapter 1 version (Man and Woman created at the same time, on the sixth day)
is in some senses more believable. At least this version suggests that God had already
planned how the reproductive process would work, and presumably the Man and the Woman,
being created at the same time, were created with the appropriate sexual organs.
The problem with the Chapter 1 version is that it doesn’t flow into the next part
of the story -
So what should we make of this account of the creation of Man and Woman? Well actually,
nothing. The entire story is just a typical Biblical shambles of jumbled, made-
