mike@WISDOM.BITNET (Mike Trachtman) (02/20/86)
It seems to me that a strong underlying cause in the modern education
of children today, in a basic chauvenistic attitude toward women,
(including the attitudes of women towards themselves), is caused
by the bible, which in a story, that we may question, but that
we are all taught in our youth.
It is the story that Man was made first, and only later,
(as an afterthough, not in the original plan), was Woman created.
Imagine, how society would relate to women, if they were created first,
and Adam was created second, to be Eve's company. Then woman would be the
tune, and men would be the harmony.
I personally think, that the best way to teach children, is to say
that they were made at the same time (as one being), and later
were separated, into two, to relieve the lonliness of the one.
This is acceptable biblical interpretation according to many commentaries.
(for when Adam was made, it says, 'male and female he made them'),
and later when it says, it is not good for the mankind-instance to be
alone, I shall make him a mate.
(All this is of course for the religious, not evolutionary mode).
In evolution, who was made first is a nonsensical issue.
Mike Trachtman
My address:
mike@wisdom (BITNET)
mike%wisdom.bitnet@wiscvm.ARPA (ARPA/CSNET)
mike%wisdom.bitnet@berkley (ARPA/CSNET)
and if all else fails (ONLY for VERY short items)
...!decvax!humus!wisdom!mike (UUCP)lah@miro.berkeley.edu.BERKELEY.EDU (Commander RYN Leigh Ann Hussey) (02/21/86)
I prefer the Kabbalistic view, myself. In the beginning, the primal
Adam was asexual ("Male and Female created He them."). The "Fall" was
not so much a matter of sinning or knowledge of sin, as a splitting of
the perfect, unified being, the separation of G-d and the Shekhinah
(the feminine aspect of the divine). The Kabbalists (as I perceive
it) see their duty to be reuniting the separated unity.
If one sees the primal being as a unity, it is easier to see equality
in the subsequent beings.
Did that make any sense?
Regards,
Leigh Ann