Was God a Libertarian?

by Ted Roberts

There’s no question that mountains of research have been directed to our bible. Every chapter, every verse.  o, every word has been examined. Whole libraries have been devoted say to Leviticus or even a minor league prophet like Habakkuk. His mother, by the way, made a huge mistake in naming him. With a name like Habakkuk, who’s gonna take him seriously? Amos, Jeremiah, even Hosiah - those are thundering names, well chosen to keep us on the paths of righteousness.

But I digress. The point is, you can hardly come up with an ambiguity, a translated word, a cloudy situation that has not been addressed by rooms full of biblical scholars.  The books, alone, would form a rainbow of mysteries from here to Jerusalem. Like: Why didn’t Joseph write his papa as he thrived in Egypt?  Why did David, G-d’s chosen, behave so badly?  Why did our creator zap Sodom and Gomorrah? There must have been ten innocents in the city limits! Did he not agree with Abraham that he would spare the Las Vegas of old if he found ten innocents? Why does Jacob marry the daughters of Lot, who seem to be idol worshipers? Did not Rebecca steal her father’s household idols - remember? Concealed in her saddlebags.) Why did G-d try to kill Moses on the road from Midian to Egypt?

And on and on and on. Mysteries galore of translation, intent, and consistency, but always the truth. Never propaganda. And thanks to the Rashis, Maimonides, Ben Ezras, and the crew who over many centuries gave us the guide we call the Talmud.

But I think even a scribbler like me sees a puzzle that no one has addressed. Not even Rashi - and strangely enough it was brought to my attention by my cat. Don’t smirk yet. The question: Why is it a free will world when it comes to procreation. Why not more boundaries to make humankind perfect? Why not more hardwiring of the human heart?

Yes, my cat prompts the question. Just this morning it occurred. This common tabby cat, totally without mammalian distinction and in accordance with G-d’s natural laws, delivered - unaided by gynecologist, midwife, or even a hospital sterile environment - three perfect miniature replicas of herself (and I suppose her anonymous lover, though I never met him).

So what, you say?  Happens every day, you say? Big deal! Well, let’s go back to Genesis. Every kindergarten kid knows the mechanics of pushing Eve unto the world’s stage - one small rib. And we continue the chain of humanity with poor, short-lived Adam, murderous Cain, and Seth - who gets the briefest biography in history - basically, a replacement for Abel.  It must be this way since all mankind can’t be the descendants of the murderous Cain - right? An intelligent creator would never curse the generations to come with that legacy.

So, as we have read, the Lord has told the world’s first newlyweds, “be fruitful and multiply”.  It is a command, not a recommendation by the manufacturer.  And he says the same to the animals. There may even be some more specific instructions that the first great matchmaker thought unnecessary to recite to Moses the scribe.  Sure, as I recall the Talmud has a fulsome chapter on sex - but that came later.

So, we all know Eve’s purpose.  (“It is not good for man to be alone.”) She should be a helper and a good listener, too, to the man with the missing rib. (I remind my wife of this constantly.)

The creator, whose consciousness is the cosmos, takes pains to provide a partner for man and incidentally - almost as a wayward second thought - a mechanism for survival of the species. But back to the cat.

The animals. What about the animals? The Lord fills up his world with animals. And he even tells them to be fertile and multiply. No multiplication and the species disappears. He didn’t take it upon himself to replenish the world with cats. That’s up to the cats. With his power this could be automatic like grooming their coat - an obsession with every feline I ever met.

He utters not a word distinguishing male and female or instilling the mating habits of the amoeba - automatic, outside of the creature.  He could have made the whole world such a reproductive factory: or utilizing that rib trick that brought us Eve. The Creator stands aside. Free will, when it comes to reproduction, rules.

Still, somewhere in the brain of the cat, the mice behind the walls of my pantry, the mosquitoes on the patio, the termites nourished by my foundation, and the cocker spaniel that lives in my neighbor's backyard - there is an undefined, invisible, intangible command to make more cats, mice, dogs, termites, mosquitoes. The details of multiplication and fertility are not the subject of multiple speeches. The Designer of all life, human and animal, only says it once to the animals - as he did to Adam and Eve - with no details about how, when, or where. He does not announce it as divine goal. Maybe that smart snake instructed them. But somehow the creeping, crawling, swimming, flying things understood that the survival of the species depends on voluntary procreation. Intuitively, they complied with the same impulse leveled on humans.  In fact, they outdid us. The cat had triplets. Not many human mothers can do that. But the “why” question remains.

No divine laws mandating procreation. It comes from the impulse of the creature itself. How clever. Reproduction could be a natural rule:  like every cat has four legs and two cute, pointed ears and it likes to lap cream or its equivalent. Else it dies. It has that freedom, too. The Creator made a democratic, non-regulatory world. There are no Czars. A world of choice for every species - even humankind. But maybe we need the choice - to reproduce - to do good or evil to find our final destiny.

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