the evolving mind

Therefore I will give their wives to other men.
(Jeremiah 8:10)

In Biblical writings females are clearly subordinate to males . . . just as they are in chimpanzee and in many human societies (which in no way suggests they should be). The founding religious document of millions upon millions of people worldwide — the Bible — customarily portrays women as possessions, as entities to control: to own, to take, and to give away.

Similarly, when it comes to the Bible god’s attitude toward children — particularly the god of the Old Testament — we see a definite preference for children of his own (lineage). This alpha loves and looks after his children, and the children of his children, with the sons of his sons receiving special attention and treatment. He lords over the multi-generational fruit of his loins, so to speak. Male relatedness is core concern, as it is for a host of primate species. (43)

Primate males — as we shall see in greater detail in the upcoming chapter, “Sexual Primacy, Sexual Jealousy” — are highly concerned with protecting and defending access to females. And although the reason is proximally about sex, the ultimate reason is progeny. Males are driven to impregnate females. Furthermore, if a male is going to expend energy providing for and/or protecting a female/family, it is prudent for him to assure that the children are his own. This concern is evident in multiple Bible passages. The great patriarch made it lawful, for example, for a man to stone his wife if he finds she is not a virgin upon their first intercourse. (Deuteronomy 22:13-21) If you marry a women who has slept with another man, there is a chance you could raise a child whose genes are not your own.

As a second example, consider this telling Bible tale from Genesis 38. When Judah heard his daughter-in-law had engaged in prostitution, and was pregnant, he declared that she should be burned to death. His son carried many of his genes, and his grandchild would carry a significant amount of those. But not if the grandchild was of another man. So the cheating woman was to be stoned. Again, paternity is a serious issue to countless animal species, including humans. The Judah story continues with the Biblical leader realizing that his daughter-in-law is pregnant with his own child. (No, this is not a script clipping from a fictional daytime soap opera, “The Days of Our Tribes.”) And so he naturally withdraws the death sentence. It is not so much the cheating that counts — although it does have proximal emotional consequences. What matters is whether or not the female carries the genes of another male. Remove concerns over family relatedness from the Bible and it would be a drastically different book.

Genes matter. In fact, they can be ruthlessly selfish. A disturbingly poignant illustration is infanticide. Males throughout the animal kingdom will kill children upon becoming the alpha of a new group. Why? Because they don’t “want” to expend energy on infants carrying alien genes. In her book about human/primate ancestry, Lucy’s Legacy, Alison Jolly highlights one manifestation of the ultimately selfish nature of primate reproduction: “Having a male around may be even more important to guard against other males, that is, against infanticide.”(44) Coupling manifests an obvious love of each other, yet a deeper passion for insuring that the offspring you care for carries your genes. To deconstruct the issue a bit further, we might say that a female bonds with a male who will protect and care for her children, while a male bonds with a female who will exclusively give birth to his children.

Infanticide is a baldly animalistic drive. Would you be surprised to discover it in the Bible?

[to be continued...]

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(43) In the Bible stories, the leader of the people is frequently referred to as the “Lord” or “God” of so-and-so. More specifically, of Abraham and/or Isaac/Jacob/David. In numerous verses he is called “The God of our fathers” (e.g., Genesis 43:23; Acts 22:14). As the Bible stories progress, the circle of people he is said to care for grows and/or becomes less clearly defined. First he becomes the god of the Israelites. Only very late in the Bible, and in an extreme minority of passages, is the he said to be the god of both Jews and Gentiles. Of all. This newer alpha would naturally show less concern with paternity issues. That said, it is interesting that in the four cornerstone gospels about Jesus, the prophet said to have been sent to lead all people, in two of four (Matthew 1 and Luke 3) the lineage of Jesus is spelled out. Why is lineage important? Because we care about blood relations. It is in the interest of our genes.
(44) Jolly, A., Lucy’s Legacy, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999, p.163

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[first posted here: http://almightyalpha.blogspot.com/2008/01/gods-love-of-his-own-children-part-i.html]

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