The biblical Eve is considered by many to be the mother of everyone. As theological convictions were being contradicted by scientific evidence in the late 19^th century religious groups were forced to say that Neanderthal man was the Adam created by God prior to being given a soul. They further suggested Adam was supernaturally produced through the womb of an ape, which would make Eve, the mother of all living, to be, rather than supernaturally created like Adam, just an ape. The belief in Eve’s universal motherhood has been used to both honor women and to defame them, which is a testament of humankind’s paradoxical ability to hold and believe two completely separate and opposed, even contradictory, views in their minds at the same time. But that does not mean people are inevitably experiencing emotional or mental health. Award-winning author May Sinclair in her book, Infamous Eve, A History scrutinizes the basis of current beliefs about Eve and her daughters^__women.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS/ANSWERS

1. Why did you write the book?

Two reasons. The first was that I found several stories about Eve that I’d never heard of before and wanted everyone to know about them too. The second reason concerns the issue of free-will. Because I teach Dream Interpretation and Analysis I discover many of the inner conflicts people have that disturb their daily lives. Far too many people are plagued by an uneasy responsibility for exercising their free-will to experience life^__wordly pleasures^__rather than being good. Like Eve and Adam they do not choose to be ignorant. They willfully make choices that they believe are bad. I wrote the book to show that life can be good when fear is removed.

2. What is the difference between polytheistic goddess and monotheistic god religions?

There are several differences, but the main issue covered in this book is that of the goddesses offering their worshipers the intimacy of birth while the monotheistic God is fickle and unforgiving. But the most import fact is that the harshness of war has been used to gloss over the fear based genetic imprints along with the relentless initiation of conflict over who has the right to establish and control the

The biblical stories were edited often. The Egyptians believed that words were made up of cosmic material. So changing the written word actually changed the event. That belief on dissimilar traditions that were cut apart and reassembled to represent and conform to a patriarchal life-style that had an exacting male god in charge of everyone. Those women^__and men^__who did not agree with the sentiments of that moral position where always denigrated and often killed. The word Qedeshah means a scared woman. Zonah can mean either prophetess or prostitute. The biblical prophets often described the women who worshipped a goddess with those terms; however, neither of those words were used until after 550 BCE.

In Plato’s book Timaeus there are four types of material from which all things are made. With the discovery of DNA and being able to use mitochondrial DNA sequences we know DNA is composed of only four letters.

Shamanism occurred in both hunting and agricultural societies. The hunter-gatherer’s interpretation of an experience while within a trance state was of their soul traveling to another realm of the cosmos. The more complex agricultural societies believed that the person experiencing the ecstasy within trance was being joined or replaced by a deity coming into their body. Both types of experience and theological perspective are found in biblical texts.

was borrowed by the Hebrews creating a religiously approved and politically expedient perspective from which they could re-write and alter the history of their tribes.

The stories in the Bible were often based

meaning of morality.

3. What difference does it make?

A person’s idea of what is moral is a major part of her or his life. Choices are made on that basis. Should a person believe another’s existence or need is more important, life decisions are made that might be unhealthy for the people involved.

4. You also say that women have been used by society to continue the status quo.

Women teach each other. Also, they are usually the ones who teach small children. As long as they believe the stories that are ever perpetuated they will continue to pass on that information. All people have a strong desire to be thought of as decent and respectable. As long as women believe they are too talkative, not very smart, are nosey, and that their ideas and interests are not as important as those of men, society remains the same.

The biblical Eve has been used to constrain women. Even today many religious groups teach that women are to be bound to men, especially, regarding marriage and children. That is a big problem for a very high percentage of women because it lessens their ability to achieve a higher level of self-worth. Both married and unmarried women endure the same inequities in pay and promotions at work, yet the impact is marked by the fact that unmarried women are the largest demographic group in the United States that do not vote. Out of the 160 countries currently allowing women the right to vote there were only 5 prior to 1907. It took an additional 50 years for another 114 countries to acknowledge women’s right to franchise and during the past 50 years there has been a 26% increase in women gaining the right to actually vote for the politicians who control much of their lives. Award-winning author May Sinclair in her book, Infamous Eve, A History scrutinizes the basis of why so many unmarried women have low self-esteem.