THREE 'WHYS' MEN: VOLTAIRE, SHAW, TWAIN
Asking 'why' is not a sin. It is a privilege adults grant each other, and even one that an adult may grant a child. Furthermore, even Jesus patiently answered Nicodemus' idiot question, "How can a man enter his mother's womb and be born a second time?" The history of theology is itself a history of the questioning process, wherein men progressively dared to ask every question allowable concerning the Bible, and finally some that weren't allowable...

Is the book of Genesis literal or allegorical? Did God really take a bit of Adam's side in order to make a woman? How did God create the light before the sun? How was the firmament formed in the midst of the waters since there is no firmament, this false imagination of ancient Egyptians, Babylonians & Greeks? There are some who conjecture that Genesis was written only after the Hebrews had some knowledge of the erroneous philosophy of other peoples. . . I wholeheartedly long to eat of the fruit that hung from the tree of knowledge, and it seems to me that the prohibition against it is strange; having given man reason, God should have encouraged him to learn. Did he want to be served by a dunce?..How shall I make the history of the Tower of Babel sound plausible? This tower must have been higher than the pyramids of Egypt (and the Twin Towers of Manhattan--Ed) since God let them be built! Did it reach to Venus or at least to the moon? (Since Voltaire wrote this, man has reached the moon, without interference by God--Ed) -- Voltaire, from "Zapata's Questions"

According to Paul of Tarsus, death entered the world through Adam's transgression (Rom. 5; I Cor 15. 21-23). In other words, Paul assumed that there was no death before Adam's Fall...No Death? No conceivable way that Adam could die? He had a body--gravity existed. Couldn't he fall off a cliff; out of a tree, breaking his neck? Or get sucked down by a rapid river while swimming? Or choke on an apple core? What about the animals? Couldn't a brontosaurus step on an ant (oops)? Or a monkey swallow a fly, or squash a caterpillar while swinging from branch to branch? Notice that if a single instance of death occurred in Eden then Paul is in error. While, if what Paul said was true, this raises another question. It means that God threatened Adam and Eve with a punishment (death) that they had no experiential knowledge of. And that hardly sounds very threatening, to be threatened with what must have appeared to them to be an invisible club. George Bernard Shaw in his play Back to Methuselah tackled the question his own unique way: "(The Garden of Eden. Afternoon. A glade in which lies a fawn all awry. Adam is staring in consternation at the fawn. Eve arrives and notices the animal.) E: What is the matter with its eyes? A: It is not only its eyes. Look. (He kicks it.) E: Oh don't! Why doesn't it wake? A: I don't know. It is not asleep. E: Not asleep? A: Try. E: (trying to shake it and roll it over) It is stiff and cold. A: Nothing will wake it. E: It has a queer smell. Did you find it like that? A: No. It was playing about, and it tripped and went head over heels. It never stirred again It's neck is wrong. (he stoops to lift the neck and show her.) E: Don't touch it. Come away from it... Adam, suppose you were to trip and fall, would you become like that? A: (he shudders.) E: You must be careful. Promise me you will be careful. A: What is the good of being careful? We have to live here for ever. Think of what for ever means! Sooner of late I shall trip and fall. It may be tomorrow; it may be after as many days as there are leaves in the garden and grains of sand by the river. No matter: some day I shall forget and stumble. E: I too."

On Paul's notion that death entered the world through Adam, Mark Twain had this to add: "Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world." Among Twain's other opinions... "Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was that they escaped teething." "Adam was but human--this explains all. He did not want the fruit for the fruit's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent." (above quotes from Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar)

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