Page 2 of
2 Why God lies and sex objects object
to sex By Spengler
they were marrying the one
individual on Earth whom God had apportioned to
them, the species would die out rather quickly.
We do not have time to find our one true
love among the other 6 billion inhabitants of the
planet, but we (and women especially) need to
believe that we are close to the mark. That is why
God lies to us or, rather, induces us to lie to
ourselves. That particular lie is the euphoria
associated with falling in love. We cannot be sure
that the person with whom we fall in love is uniquely
apportioned to us by destiny
or divine decree, yet that is the way it seems to
us when love takes hold of us.
I say that
"God lies" because of an extraordinary precedent
in Genesis 18, the annunciation of the forthcoming
miraculous birth of Isaac. Three angels appear at
Abraham's tent and inform the centenarian that his
elderly wife Sarah will bear him a son and heir.
As noted, Sarah bursts out laughing at the idea
that her elderly husband might give her pleasure,
and God lies to Abraham to protect his feelings.
The text reads:
9 And [the angels] said unto
[Abraham], Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said,
Behold, in the tent.
10 And he said, I
will certainly return unto thee according to the
time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have
a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door,
which was behind him.
11 Now Abraham and
Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it
ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of
women.
12 Therefore Sarah laughed within
herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I
have pleasure, my lord being old also?
13 And the LORD said unto Abraham,
Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a
surety bear a child, which am old?
14 Is
any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time
appointed I will return unto thee, according to
the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
15 Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed
not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but
thou didst laugh.
Perhaps Abraham did
not quite believe God's explanation, for he growls
at Sarah in verse 15, "What are you laughing at?"
Or perhaps we are to understand that Abraham's
outburst at Sarah preceded God's explanation in
verse 13. In either case, the medieval Jewish
commentators observed that God lied to Abraham to
preserve domestic harmony.
This remarkable
fact I learn from the newsletter of the Orthodox
Community at Brandeis University, whose motto is
"Truth even unto its innermost parts" - excepting
one, evidently, namely relations between men and
women. An article by Adena Frazer titled "God's
white lie" observes, "The Talmud explains that God
edited Sarah's statement for the sake of peace
(Bava Metzia 87a). Apparently, he felt that
repeating Sarah's original comment would detract
from the couple's domestic tranquility." [5]
It is not always the case that the truth
shall set you free. Sometimes the truth will make
you crazy. That applies in the case of decisions
we must make on Earth that affect our sense of
immortality. The choice of marital partner and
parent to our children is the most important an
intimate of these, and its implications are too
sensitive to let truth get in the way.
Of
course, woman discover in time that Prince
Charming is neither a prince nor particularly
charming, and men discover that the woman who once
seemed to distill the energies of the universe
into a single draft are not much different from a
range of other women. Even God cannot keep the
truth from us forever. If things work out, of
course, by the time we come to our senses, it is
time to fall in love once again, with our
children.
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