Genesis

I have never read anything quite like Genesis. Between the Dumbledoor- like impression of God and the caveman-esque Adam and Eve, R. Crumb has quite the twisted imagination. I wouldn't say it made me uncomfortable persay, but I now have a whole new perspective on these adapted passages from the bible. Naturally, I remember the story of Adam and Eve most because it is, after all, the reason we are not a global nudist community. R. Crumb's version of these characters are much fatter than I pictured while God is portrayed looking kind of angry all the time. Then it proceeds to the story of Cain and Able, which for some reason I could never really remember anyways.

Now Noah's Ark on the other hand, that is a memorable story too. Is it really logistically possible to fit two of every species of animal on one boat? I picture a pre Titanic moment occuring. Nonetheless, when I was little, I had a cartoon movie version of the story of Noah and needless to say I wanted to be on that boat so badly. I can only hope if God brings flood round two, he would pick me to build the boat and live.



Then of course there is Abram, and all his bunches of chilren. I guess you could say he and Pharaoh had a slight altercation in the course of that story. I never enjoyed these stories. They're too violent for my personal taste. A good example of that would be Sodom and Gomorrah. There's a reason sodomy is such a distasteful word/action. Just writing it makes me feel a little queasy. Now I'm getting ahead of myself in Genesis.

Another thing I noticed though was the cover. First of all I never knew there were 50 chapters in Genesis. I suppose going to Catholic school the majority of my life didn't do me much good. There's also the fact it states "Adult supervision recommended for minors". Crumb turned this portion of the Bible into such a dirty little thing. I'm sure he got a lot of controversy over these depictions.

Scared Sinless

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Annodomini/THEME_18/IMAGES/Vandersteenebig.jpg

It was my first day at bible camp when the camp leader reiterated to me the story of Genesis. “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. God made Adam in his perfect image, created Eve as his female companion, and surrounded them with animals and plants in which existed in abundance.” he said. “And everyone lived happily ever after! “ I interrupted. I zoned out after that. I knew there was more to the story yet I was much more concerned with developing my own conclusions as to how the world evolved. In my mind, the story of Adam and Eve was a simple tale, almost fairytale like. It took place in an uncomplicated world wherein people weren’t faced with uncertainties and unexpected obstacles. The world was free of complexities and hardships. According to my five-year-old mind, humans were born into the world with a built-in-ability to flourish under any circumstances and destined to have a happy ending.





Out of all the stories of Genesis, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah impacted me most. My grandmother, firm in her belief in Christianity, told me on more than several occasions of how God unleashed his wrath by setting flames to the wickedness, the evil doing, and the “sexual degradation” that manifested in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. As my grandmother is a conservative Christian, I know that her motives for the constant retelling of the story was to express to me- no, more like make me fearful of- the consequences that would arise had I ever engaged in loose and meaningless sexual activity. According to grandmother, sexual expressions in all its forms were expressions against God. “You want to end up like the people I told you about in the story?” she used to ask me, “That’s what happens to people who are bad. You must exercise control over your sexual behavior or else…you might just get smite.” During my lifetime wherein I was religious the story terrified me. I made a very irrational promise to myself. I promised myself that I would never fall in love to avoid inevitably submitting to the lusty, passionate nature that would send me into a dizzying frenzy compelling me to act in sexual ways consequentially sending me to damnation. I instead vowed to be a lonely, sexless woman who would one day have two or three children through virgin births. Ridiculous? I know! But at the time, I was only twelve and my grandmother’s tactics aimed at terrifying me were working. At the time, I would definitely say that I was scared sinless.

Powerful Stories of Genesis

Due to the fact that I grew up in a household that was not very strict about religion, my memories of the Book of Genesis are somewhat sparse. Don’t get me wrong; I attended Sunday school, CCD and church every week until I made my conformation, so I do have an alright recollection of the Book of Genesis. I do recall a few of the stories.

One of the stories or fragment of a story rather, I remember is when God told Abraham to kill his son. I heard it church when I was a child. I remember it being pretty perverse, telling a father to kill his only son. It really made me thinkabout my faith and my willingness to do such a thing. I could never think of killing another person let alone my son. The story made my develop both a fear and a respect for God.

The story I recollect the best is the Noah’s Ark. I remember first hearing the story one day in Sunday school. The funny thing is I did not dwell on the fact that God had fabricated the storm to punish and kill all humans with the exception of Noah and his family. I suppose I just put it in the back of my mind. The images of the story in my mind were formed from an illustrated bible I had as a child. It was basically the typical

image that came to mind when thinking of the

story of Noah, except it was a lot more cheerful and colorful than the actua

l story. All of the animals and Noah were ecstatic to get on the ark as everything they knew in the world was simply washed away. Thinking back on it now the story taught me to count my blessings and be to be gra

teful for what I have as is could very easily vanish in an instant.

Christmas can be stolen once... or twice

How the Grinch Stole Christmas cartoon movie from 1966 was a favorite movie of mine when I was growing up. Every Christmas Eve, my brother and I would sit right in front of the television to watch one of our cherished holiday movies. The music would begin and the narrator's voice started to tell a story of the grumpy old Grinch who hated Christmas so much that he wanted to steal it from the Whos of Whoville. The songs in this movie and the great Dr. Seuss cartoon aspect of it always put us in the best Christmas mood. The original story book that the movie was based off followed the same story line and had the same Dr. Seuss feel to it. The illustrations made both the book and movie very exciting because they were created by Dr. Seuss. Anything by Dr. Seuss, in my opinion, is amazing.

As the years went by, Hollywood decided to do their own take on this classic story by making a full length movie with Jim Carrey and Taylor Momsen. This movie was not filled with the cartoons or songs that the other had, but was packed with major comedy. It took another take on the Grinch's life by adding his sad past that brought him to be the hermit that he became. By showing these details, it allowed for people to feel sorry for the Grinch and understand where he was coming from, unlike the original. It also had a love triangle added in to please the audience. My brother and I quickly added this movie to our annual Christmas movie collection. Although I really enjoy this film as well, it does not have the same effect on me as the original version that I love so much does.

The songs from the cartoon version play over and over in my head during the holiday season. The Glee cast remade my favorite song from the movie and of course did a great job. I think that there is no way that you could mess up something created by Dr. Seuss. These different adaptations to his original story just add on to his creativity and allow for him to live on. Dr. Seuss created a platform for people to be creative, and the different versions have been made as others to add on.

Dovey, a daughter of Genesis

Growing up in a Catholic School, I’ve always been relatively familiar with the Bible. However, only until about 10th grade did I actually read any of it while studying the Old Testament. I distinctly remember reading various stories throughout Genesis, and what I most remember is that I really disliked it, a lot.

Of course, the most distinct story is the account of creation. God formed the earth from nothing and man from the earthin a matter of six days, and then Adam and Eve sin and damn the rest of mankind for eternity. Overall, it really seems to be a terrible way of starting off the human race, in my opinion. Regardless, the story of creation has contradicted everything that I have learned in science class, especially about the age of the planet Earth and dinosaurs.

Also, the story of Cain and Abel is a vague memory for me. Though, it’s really only when Cain is banned from father’s land that stands out. When Cain is banished from the land, he worries that people from other villages will murder him because they know he killed his brother. But what I question is: what other people? Cain and Abel are supposed to be the sons of Adam and Eve, who were the first human beings to have been created. Where did these supposed other people come from? It really blows my mind when Cain stumbles upon a Hebrew village of people away from Eden. Was there a part of the story that was left out or are we just supposed to have faith that it makes practical sense? I remember asking several religion teachers that question in grammer school and in high school and they all just gave me some sort of concerning look.

However, the story of the great flood with Noah has always been my favorite of all of the Genesis stories. Whether it may be true or not, it makes for an amusing story of divine genocide. The newly created world that God was so happy with turns to hell on earth, and so he decides to destroy everything. But the goodness in one man’s heart touches God and he saves Noah and his family and two of each living creature from across the entire planet and then drowns the whole earth. Regardless of how illogical the realisticness of the story are, it made for a great movie.

Evan Almighty, with Steve Carrel from Anchorman

I can't exactly say that Genesis has had any big impact on my life, but I can say that I do experience one small aspect of the story of the ark everyday. In the story, Noah releases a white dove to see if the earth is at peace. Doves are seen as very sweet, loyal, and peaceful birds-- and, I have one of my very own.

Creatively, I named her Dovey. She's absolutely the most adorable and sweetest thing that I have ever laid my eyes on. Though, I can't really see her flying around the open sky and returning with an olive branch; it seems she doesn't like to fly far distances.

Genesis

Genesis to me can be summed up in one word – angry. The most potent stores in my memory are the stories of Noah and the flood, Cain and Abel, Moses and the wandering of the desert, and more. For this reason I remember Genesis as an angry book. God is short tempered, demanding, and quick to bring his wrath on his people. The effect this had on me as a child was that it instilled in me a fear of God. I developed a fear of going to hell. Genesis was introduced to me at a young age. The creation stories were told to me time and again, mostly because I was raised in a private religious school. So for most of my youth I heard and read genesis at school, and several of its stories bring me back to that age.
The story that had the greatest impact on me was the story of Moses and the Jews wandering the dessert for forty years. As I aged towards double digits it began to fill me with questions. How could God hold such a grudge over his people? Didn’t he know we aren’t perfect? Similarly the creation story and the lack of will power displayed by Adam and Eve baffled me. I didn’t understand why they couldn’t have just left it alone. And why did God have to drown the earth with the exception of Noah and his family. The explanations given in Genesis weren’t satisfactory in my young eyes. Of course as I got older the connection I had with the stories began to fade as I began to think for myself in regards to religion. Now my memory of Genesis is spotty at best but I doubt that I will ever forget these childhood stories. All though I will continue to remember them, they will just have less and less of an impact on my life. Genesis and its complex composition bring back images of the vacant look upon the faces of my young classmates. Other than that, their stories don’t hold much substance, yet.

And God saw it was good... until it promptly became bad.

Mystery. Creation. Sex. Lies. Deceit. Murder. Destruction... one hell of a way to start off a story if you ask me. No wonder the Bible is the best selling book of all time. Not only does it have all the elements that make up a captivating drama... It's allegedly the first drama. A bold statement which, no matter what you believe, must count for something.

Being brought up in a Christian home I am well versed in the Bible, specifically Genesis and Revelation. Why these two books you ask? Because when I was eight years old a preacher told me that as a "true christian" I should read the Bible all the way through. To me however, that seemed like a lot of reading. Reading I didn't have time for... So I just read the beginning and the end to save time. Needless to say, after reading the first and last, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, and then imagining the middle I couldn't help but wonder why adults got all worked up over a story that starts with naked people snitching on a talking snake and ends with dragons, horsemen, and seven seals (being eight I thought the Bible meant "seal" as in the cute aquatic animal).

No matter how misguided however, this perspective on the Bible did give me a unique look at Genesis. By not taking the story for granted and reading it as if it were literal, I saw just how vague and slightly ridiculous most of the content in Genesis really is. This made the story of creation seem especially disjointed to me because, if you really think about it, the "God" in the creation story seems very different from the other "God" in the Old and New Testaments. God in the creation story seems very temperamental, egotistical, almost human like, displaying jealousy, rage, and perhaps even fear for what he had made. Like Dr. Frankenstein or the Scientist in Jurassic Park, God appears to fit the classic creator whose creation has gone wrong, rather than an almighty, all knowing, all powerful God. This did make me question the nature of the creator "God" and upon finishing the creation story I could have paraphrased it with "In the beginning God made a mistake.", and after finishing the rest of the Bible "God attempts to fix the mistake he made."

But no matter your opinion or interpretation, Genesis, creation myth or factual account, is a story ingrained into american culture... and for good reason. Even at face value it is a great story that rightfully serves as the definitive creation story archetype. And (as I pointed out at the beginning of this post) it does make for one hell of a story. No pun intended.

Faith or Fiction?

Oddly enough, I am what people would a "preacher's kid" so the Bible and the book of Genesis has always been in my life. I grew up in a church where these trivial stories were told and retold time and time again. They are stories that are used to display morality and sin and beauty and punishment. Many of these stories seem almost fairytaleish to me. Genesis is just so introductory.
We have been talking a good deal about Christianity in my World Religions class and it has just made me think about religion as a whole and how it works. My professor was just going on about how religions "steal" good ideas from other religions. It seems to be very much true. Every religion has a basis for how the world came about and who is their creator and savior, but with the exceptions of a few key rules, they resemble eachother.
But going back to Genesis, one story that always stood out to me was the story of cain and abel. They were brothers and cain killed his younger brother. How could a person do that? "I am not my brother's keeper." These horrifying words just add to the intensity of this story. Greed and jealously destroyed a man and brought him to the edge of insanity where he murdered his own flesh and blood. The bond between siblings is strong, but their bond was blinded by hate. I don't know. Thinking about it, I really feel like this is the reason why I needed to find my brother. I wanted a relationship that brought us together not drove us apart. I needed him there. And for those of you who don't know, I just met my brother about 2 years ago. I always knew about him and felt him with me, but never had the opportunity to be in his life until recently.
Genesis is book of unbelievable proprtions in just depends on how much faith you're willing to put in it.

Creation of Faith (or lack-there-of)

Religion was something that was never really reinforced in my childhood. Sure, my parents and siblings would utter such comments as "remember to say your prayers" or "god doesn't like that." Well, now at eighteen, I don't regard religion much at all. To each his own is my philosophy when it comes down to matters of belief and faith. Despite my lack of belief in divine beings and almighty gods, I did dabble in bible school in my younger years.

At eleven years old I participated in bible school for the first time. It took place in an old white wooden church minutes from my grandmother's home. I remember there were students from Florida there to teach us about the "greatness, kindness, and fairness" of god and his son. During one section of the day they took the time to discuss and read passages from the bible. The first passage read was that of god creating light, darkness, the earth, the heavens, the land and seas, and the sea dwellers and the bird, and finally, man. God wanted them and POOF! They were created, they were good, and they were here to stay (well, not so much for man...but we'll get to that later).

Another passage read was the deception of Eve by the serpent and the consequences she and her male counterpart endured due to their crime of eating from the tree of knowledge. This story intrigued me a bit mainly, well, because there was a talking snake. We learned of their banishment from the garden of eden. I remember that the teachers took joy in reminding us that this was the original sin, that disobeying god's wishes would be sure to land us an after-life of misery.

At last, we reached the destruction of man by the great floods and of Noah's wooden ark (at last!). Our teachers told stories of Noah taking two of each animal and bringing them into his ark to avoid the rains that would last for forty days and forty nights and destroy the abominable thing called man. But as Noah and his wife and a pair of all the animals remained, they could repopulate the earth (which, I assume, happened because if not, then according to any believer, we surely wouldn't be here right now).

It's pretty clear that years later I still do not believe in any such higher beings as I have not found any significant evidence or have been given reason to put my faith in trust in such. I still continue to feel as if others (and myself, when I was younger) used the thought of a savior as a security blanket to hide beneath when we were scared or under a great deal of pressure. I find that it is not by choice that I do not believe in divine power, but simply by the fact that I have been shown no proof that such exists.


In the wise words of Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) of the film Angels and Demons: "Faith is a gift I have yet to receive."