‘Garden Of Eden A Myth’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31090, 20 June 1966, Page 1

‘Garden Of Eden A Myth’

There z had never been a Garden of Eden, only jungle and fenland; there had never been an Adam or an Eve, and certainly the fig leaf had never existed, the Anglican radical, Canon Hugh Montefiore, said in a Christchurch Cathedral sermon last evening. A large congregation, including many university students, heard the sermon, entitled; “The Fall Upwards.” Canon Montefiore is vicar of the University Church, Cambridge, and canon theologian of Coventry Cathedral. He said there was no moment when man had fallen. Man had never been without a tendency to sin. The serpent had evolved on earth millions of years before man. Guilt was obviously the natural accompaniment of all human sin. The misuse of sex was as much a sin as the misuse of any other of God’s gifts. “But to feel shame about something that is glorious and

good and God-given—and sex is all three Of these—for a husband and wife, for Adam and Eve to feel shame about that, is a horrible and gross

distortion of the truth,” he said. Although he had tried to show some of the crudities in the ancient myth of Adam and Eve, he did not deny that it also contained profound truth in parts. “But I do cay that it paints

an unworthy picture of God,” he said. The Bible itself did not connect the sin of Adam with man’s inheritance of original sin. Later thinkers had erroneously connected the two.

Although it might seem humbling to man’s pride that much of his life was settled when he were still a child dependant on his mother, he had to accept the fact Overindulgence or gross deprivation during those early months could have a disastrous effect on a child’s development and sometimes the result could not be eradicated. Canon Montefiore said he did not find very beautiful some aspects of human behaviour, such as activities in the slaughterhouse or the knackers’ yard. But his attitude did, not mean that what went on in such places was necessarily wrong. “Presumably you agree with me, or you would have refused to have meat today with your Sunday lunch,” he said.

As well as the seeds of vice, man had inherited the seeds of virtue, things like the mother instinct and the group instinct

“Our inherited selfconcern is not our fault but we are largely to blame for our sins,” he said. “If there is any blame for self-concern, it should be levelled against God. We did not invent the process of evolution. It just happened. In fact, in the universe God created, it just had to happen.” Bias, said Canon Montefiore, could easily pervert all human personality. Man’s selfconcern could get out of hand: it could force him to provocative ostentation and agression and could wrack him with anxiety and mental torment “It can lead us so easily into all the seven deadly sins,” he said. “It can make life absolute hell both for us and for those with whom we have to do. Unless this bias is straightened out the very pursuit of happiness deprives us of the possibility of finding it.”

Man's greatest obstacle was himself and God, through Jesus Christ had given him a real chance.

Man could develop his bent nature so that he degraded himself far below the level of animals, for the animals were amoral, or he was capable of a far greater good than any beast Canon Montefiore.