Born to Die, part twenty-two

In the beautifully poetic mythology of Hebrew scripture, Cain the farmer murders his brother Abel the shepherd (Genesis 4: 1-16) as his solution to being rejected (or at least his offering) by God. Unless they are willing to concede to incest, literalists have a problem explaining how the family of Man proceeded from a single set of parents. Fortunately, the author(s) of Genesis wasn’t bound to fundamentalism and used rich metaphor to communicate the relationship between Creator and creature. For the purpose of this discussion, however, it is important to note that in an (what we now know failed) effort to selfishly preserve and elevate his own life Cain resorted to imposing death upon another. That scenario has repeated itself ad nauseam from the dawning of our species (see 2001: A Space Odyssey) to the lethal present. In this context, one’s own life is to be preserved at all cost, even to the point of taking the life of another (murder, execution, casualty of war, etc) further reinforcing the notion that death is to be avoided as the ultimate punishment. Is this why I’m going to die? Is it because I failed to live successfully? Is it because I failed to become the sole survivor that I am not granted immortality? How many others must I kill to find favor with God? Must I eliminate all the others in order for God to smile upon me as his only begotten son? Some very strange answers have evolved from the synthesis of scripture, tradition, experience and reason.