The creation stories of Genesis blend mythological motifs with reflections on the moral consequences of human evolution. When we understand the serpent voice to be the appearance of the human inner voice --the beginnings of evolutionary, human self-consciousness, a consequence of eating of the fruit of the garden-- then the hiding that Adam does, not because they have disobeyed God (as one presumes on a first read) but because for the first time they know they are naked, is crucial to notice. The possibilities of self-consciousness are immense --they include becoming like God by living in past, present, and future at once, they include radical intentionality and subjectivity-- but also include the dark side, a preoccupation with self-consciousness in its most mundane meaning, a preoccupation with wondering what people think of one, the feeling of being naked in front of others, the nightmare of showing up at school in one's underwear. What do people think of us? Do they like us? What about our physical appearance are they reacting to? How do they compare us to others, favorably or unfavorably? This is the serpent voice in our heads, of our inner "I," the one that nips at our heels and we try to clobber on the head but only goes away only temporarily but always returns. Research shows that this serpent voice is amplified to monstrous degrees by social media: Are my posts liked? Are others making fun of my appearance in the photo? Am I totally ignored? Am I left out? How can I cultivate a persona that garners "likes"? How can I grown that persona, maintain it, even as it detaches from any connection to my authentic self, so when God says, "Ayekah?" Where/who are you really? God knows the self I'm wearing is the product of the serpent voice, my cultivated and emotionally crushing phony self?
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