Genesis of the (patriarchical?) cosmos

Religion and Secularism
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Exploring the connection between the Genesis story and the establishment of patriarchy as the leading model of our Christian societies.

Other than the obvious like the gender of God, Jesus and the prophets , what intrigues me is the story of the creation. God created man first, then from a part of man he created woman. Then the original sin…it is clear who the instigator of that was.

Of course everyone knows it is just a story, but it also is well established , some would say morally authoritative. Our church and education system, both authorities in our society, accept and promote it.

I wonder how different would women’s inequality tolerance levels be if the same story presented man as the cause of our getting kicked out of the garden of Eden? Or if it was both their fault.

What if God created woman first and then created man from her rib?

What if God, Jesus and the prophets were represented as women?

How would that play out in the long run? Would we have an ecumenical Matriarch ? Would all priests be women and men be prohibited from entering the church’s altar same as women are today in Christian Orthodox churches? And if the authority was women would that mean they would enjoy more respect? Would their opinion carry more weight than men’s?Higher salaries than men perhaps?

This is just a thought experiment but I for one, no sociology or psychology expert, feel that such beliefs change our mindset and our mindset changes our behavior. So there it is..

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And to take it one step further.. what would it be like if all regarding the Genesis story was equally distributed. What if God created man and woman from a common blob of mud? What if they were rewarded for eating the fruit of knowledge??

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Very good questions.

Coran does not distinguish between man and woman, and is as patriarchal as the Bible.

Our memory is selective.

Scholars and theologians have sought to resolve what appeared to be a contradiction between two creation accounts in Genesis:

Genesis 1:27: God creates man and woman simultaneously (“God created man in his own image […] male and female he created them”).

Genesis 2:21–22: God creates Adam first, then later fashions Eve from one of Adam’s ribs.

To harmonize these two passages, Jewish legend posited that Adam had a first wife (created at the same time as him from the earth, Genesis 1) before Eve (created from Adam, Genesis 2).

However, Christians favored the second passage.

There is another, more scientific way to analyze the situation. The patriarchal system pre-existed, and the authors of traditional narratives—like the compilers of religious texts—justified it.

A good example can be found in the way Christian doctrine has obscured the role of women in the Gospels.

There is an explanation regarding the forbidden fruit:

In Paradise, men and women existed in an animal state. Eating the forbidden fruit serves as a metaphor for attaining consciousness—for becoming truly human.

Upon attaining humanity, humans lose their innocence; they are cast out of Paradise not by God, but by themselves.

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AI summing up about the forbidden fruit

This interpretation is one of the most intellectually compelling, rich, and influential readings of Genesis in modern philosophy, psychology, and comparative mythology.

Rather than viewing the Fall of Man as a moral catastrophe or an act of petty malice, this perspective—often called the existential or psychological interpretation of the Fall—views it as a necessary story about the birth of human self-consciousness.

Here is a breakdown of why this interpretation holds so much weight, how key thinkers have developed it, and the psychological nuance behind “self-exile.”

1. Paradise as the “Unconscious Animal State”

Before eating from the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve live in Eden in a state of primal innocence. They are naked and feel no shame (Genesis 2:25).

  • The Psychological Parallel: Animals do not feel “naked” or “ashamed” because they do not possess meta-cognition (the awareness that they are being perceived by an Other).

  • In Eden, humans exist in complete harmony with nature because they live purely by instinct, seamlessly integrated into the natural world without time-consciousness, existential anxiety, or moral conflict.

2. The Fruit as Self-Awareness (Dualistic Thought)

The fruit comes from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. “Knowledge” here is not just factual data; it is differentiation and self-reflection.

  • To know “Good and Evil” means to understand opposites: life vs. death, self vs. other, past vs. future, pleasure vs. suffering.

  • The moment they eat, “their eyes are opened, and they realize they are naked” (Genesis 3:7). This is the precise moment ego-consciousness is born. They suddenly realize: “I am a separate entity, I am vulnerable, and I can be harmed.”

3. “Self-Exile”: Why Humans Cast Themselves Out

The idea that humans cast themselves out of Paradise—rather than being evicted by an angry deity—is central to thinkers like Erich Fromm (You Shall Be As Gods) and Immanuel Kant (Conjectural Beginning of Human History):

  • The Loss of Instinct: Once a species acquires reason, foresight, and self-awareness, it can never go back to being a “simple animal.” You cannot “un-know” mortality, time, or responsibility.

  • The Burden of Consciousness: Self-awareness brings anxiety, guilt, and the knowledge of death. Eden (unconscious bliss) becomes fundamentally incompatible with humanity (conscious freedom).

  • Therefore, the “expulsion” is not a physical eviction, but an ontological shift: humans can no longer experience the world as a frictionless paradise because their own minds generate division, worry, and moral friction.

Key Philosophers Who Shared This View

  • Immanuel Kant: Saw the story as a metaphor for humanity’s transition from the guardianship of instinct to the dangerous freedom of reason.

  • G.W.F. Hegel: Argued that the Fall was a necessary stage in human evolution. For human beings to achieve true freedom and morality, they had to first lose their unthinking, animal innocence.

  • Erich Fromm: Described the eating of the fruit as humanity’s first act of individuation and freedom. Disobedience was the necessary act that made man truly human.

  • Carl Jung: Interpreted Eden as the “oceanic unconscious” or the womb. The Fall represents the painful birth of the individual ego differentiating itself from the collective realm of nature.

The Core Paradox

This interpretation highlights a profound human paradox: Consciousness is both our greatest gift and our primary tragedy.

By gaining self-awareness, we gain art, morality, science, and love—but we pay for it with anxiety, the awareness of mortality, and a permanent sense of alienation from nature. The “Garden” is not a place on a map, but the state of unthinking peace we traded away to become human.

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3) “Self-Exile”: Why humans cast themselves out. How similar to (slowly) transitioning from the child dream-like state to adulthood . (believe is also explained scientifically wrt brain-wave function),

2) The fruit of Self-Awareness (Dualistic thought). If knowledge of Good and Evil involves knowledge of pleasure and suffering I guess our survival forecast is much better with it than without it.

1) Paradise as the “Unconscious Animal State”. There are human tribes that allow nudity. Neither are they animals nor do they lack meta-cognition to my knowledge.

Obviously this is all metaphorical. However, to return to the original subject, seems like some metaphorical aspects of the story have been thought through more than others. I feel like while we are stll digesting the rationalization of the obviously symbolical parts, the seven days, heaven, the snake, the fruit of knowledge, there are more subtly implied ideas that still pass as constants that we have not yet questioned the sanity of. And no matter if it was done on purpose or as the naturally occuring product of a writer/s living in an already patriarchical society, I wonder if/how that affects our society to this day. Maybe the Coran does not distinguish between woman and man directly but perhaps it also includes these “silent constants”? I am not familiar with it..

Does anyone have a philosophical explanation as to why it was the woman who was tempted into trying the fruit of knowledge? What could that symbolize? And would that symbolization be something that we want to live by?

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It seems you have missed the original question of the Genesis of the Patriarchal Cosmos. Each goes down the philosophical road of moving into metaphorical discussion of Self-Awareness, Self-exile, Consciousness, Loss of Instinct and went around why patriarchal instead of matriarchal cultures. This seems to only consider the Jewish biblical history but should also include other cultures that do have a matriarchal society. There are numerous cultures or religions around the world that could be considered and studied. Also, how does genetics play into this subject if we could include other species (not only mammals) on the planet that demonstrate the dominance of the female gender.

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3 points,

For me the writers of the Bible were in a patriarchal system. and they knitted a tale to justify it.

If my reading of the Genesis is right, it is by Eve that humanity accedes to consciousness. She is not causing the downfall of Humanity, she is allowing it to become herself. The fact that god punish humanity for having reached his potential tells much about him, if he exists.

Matriarchy is not as general as you say.

The term “matriarchy” is not well-suited to the animal kingdom.

Bonobos have long been portrayed as a kind of “matriarchal society,” largely because females cooperate with one another and can keep male aggression in check.

However, primatologists tend to be more cautious: “matriarchy” implies that females hold political or social power in a way comparable to a human patriarchy—something difficult to demonstrate in animals.

It is more precise to speak of female dominance, female coalitions, or societies centered on maternal lineages.

If “matriarchy” is defined strictly as “power exercised by women over men”—

—that is, a society where women hold ultimate political authority, control key institutions, and men are generally subordinate to them—then there is currently no indisputable historical or ethnographic example of such a society.

A recent review in Archaeological Dialogues is quite definitive: the general domination of women over men—as envisioned by early theorists of matriarchy—has never been observed in known matrilineal societies; consequently, the concept of matriarchy has largely been abandoned by contemporary social anthropology.

This certainly does not mean that male dominance is a universal constant. Some societies have been egalitarian; some grant women considerable economic or familial authority; and some even exhibit female dominance in specific areas.

Matrilineality, matrilocality, matrifocal households, and matriarchy are four distinct concepts.

Matrilineal societies are very real. And there are many of them.

“Matrilineal” means that lineage, inheritance, or clan membership is traced through the mother.

There are also societies where women hold genuine social preeminence.

This is likely the most relevant point regarding your question.

One can find societies in which:

women control property or essential resources;
residence is matrilocal; children belong to the maternal lineage;
women possess a high degree of economic autonomy;
important decisions are largely controlled by women;
men hold significant responsibilities but do not constitute the dominant group.

This represents a system that can reasonably be described as female-centred, matrifocal, or—according to some anthropologists—matriarchal, though not necessarily a “gynæcocracy.”

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I agree there are exceptions to the patriarchical societies, but the 2 most popular religions Christianity and Islam are not matriarchical by any stretch of imagination. Also, at least from my pov the connection between the Genesis story and patriarchy is interesting, makes sense and has not been explored afaik. Would like to see if other people find it intriguing as well.

The question I have in my mind is if our human societies (focusing on the ones that are indeed patriarchical) would be the opposite, matriarcical, if our religious books weare being taught had the genders in reverse. This is my thought experiment.

If there is any truth/logic to this, to me it goes to show how big of an influence an innocent story can have, and also the oxymoron of the fact that on the one hand we are living in an era of political correctness where gender equality is under the lens while at the same time we are still imprinting our children’s brains with the same stories that caused the inequality in the first place (assuming a large part of the population is being taught this in elementary school).

So I consider these to be 2 oposite forces and wonder when such things will stop being taught to young people.

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I think that the influence is reciprocal.

Religions don’t create societies, but societies create religions. the bible and the Coran were written by patriarchal societies, and not the reverse.

But, once the religious text has been written and imposed, it is used to justify and reenforce the patriarchal system, up to absurdity.

Muhammad’s treatment of women and the Qur’anic rules concerning them were considerably more complex and differentiated than the later image of a universally veiled Muslim woman might suggest. Some rules were explicitly specific to Muhammad’s wives, while others applied to believing women generally. After Muhammad’s death, the early caliphate and subsequent jurists progressively elaborated and sometimes extended these rules, producing increasingly restrictive systems of gender segregation and female modesty. Umar is particularly associated in the early sources with a more conservative and disciplinarian approach to women’s behavior.

Early Islam simultaneously improved women’s position in certain respects—inheritance rights, restrictions on arbitrary divorce, recognition of women’s property rights, condemnation of female infanticide—while establishing or maintaining a strongly patriarchal social order

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Yes. Thank you Morgan.

Traditions are a strong influence. Something I find difficult to understand but it’s undeniable. I value the idea of change and trying new things. It’s part of being liberal. I can see some value in sticking to traditions but I’m not blind to the harm they can cause. We need ways to pass on useful values like caring for our young. Religion can help with that but they also bundle harmful traditions along with them.