Human nature is very interesting. Each human being is born with an innate sense of nature or proclivity towards behavior. We inherit these characteristics from our parents and ancestors. The offspring of athletes often develop into great athletes themselves such as Kobe Bryant or Floyd Mayweather Jr. Our environments shape our attitudes on morality and affect our thought processes; however, our genetic lineage is somewhat predetermined. Our ancestors may have given us a clue into one of life's great mysteries with the creation story of Adam and Eve...
The cradle of civilization is believed to have come from the middle east (Iraq, Iran, Israel, Syria, and Jordan) near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Even still to this day there seems to be some sort of residual spiritual magnetism that causes intense feuding dating back as far as historical records can indicate. The Book of Genesis, one of the founding works of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam dates back nearly 3500 years.
The Book describes, in poetic detail, the creation of the earth and all the creatures that live on it. Its story is told in amazing simplicity that even children may hear it and in time come to understand its wisdom with maturity. In the creation story, God produced man in His likeness and gave him dominion over the earth much like a father would bestow an inheritance unto his son. The Creator of the world is said to have existed before time itself and in creating Time and the Universe, He made Angels to help him. Angels are spiritual beings (as opposed to human beings) which are not bound to flesh and blood bodies. After the Creator had made man, He called him Adam and saw that he was lonely so He created a companion for him and called her Eve. Adam and Eve lived in a paradise called the Garden of Eden under the condition that they do not eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. God had warned them that if they consumed from it that they would die.
Some of the Angels were jealous of the Creator's love for man and chose to go their own way. The leader of the fallen angels, sometimes called Satan, is said to have assumed the form of a snake and tempted Eve in the Garden. The story does not explicitly say that sex was involved (which makes the story safe for children); however, it implies that the devil seduced Eve and told her that she would not die from disobeying God but instead would gain the wisdom that God had kept from her and Adam (much like Adultery doesn't usually kill the committer but does bring about spiritual decline especially if pregnancy and abortion is involved).
Some believe that Satan had assumed a human form and after he seduced Eve into sin she became pregnant with the seed that begot Cain. In her new awareness Eve convinced Adam to sin by also eating the forbidden fruit to cover her shame and became pregnant with Cain's brother, Abel. In the creation story, after both had sinned, Adam and Eve became aware of their nakedness and covered themselves with fig leaves which is how God knew of their disobedience.
After their fall from grace, Adam and Eve were fractured and could no longer live as they were. Their everlasting shame of disobedience and sin stained their conscience and souls. Cain grew jealous of his brother and murdered him. He was cast out of the family and left to create his own legacy in another land. Adam and Eve begot another child, Seth, who would become the replacement for their lost son. It sounds incredibly dysfunctional because it is. Satan poisoned human nature and corrupted the human family because he was jealous of God's love for mankind.
To this day, our nature is affected by man's fear of being deceived by an adulterous woman and the risk of raising another man's seed. Women themselves are temped and deceived by snakes of men who seduce and destroy wives, girlfriends, mothers, and households. Temptation slithers into our minds when we are weak and plants the seed of doubt or faithlessness. It tells us to partake and that no harm will come to us. It wants us to stray from the path of truth. It wants us to sin and disobey God.
Today our society is composed of fractured households. It is common to hear of affairs, step-families, and divorced parents. In school, children are taught about sex with the anticipation of puberty. Some of them are too young to understand the gravity of such behavior, yet this discussion is necessary as most parents themselves are not properly addressing these concerns. Like our young ancestors, Adam and Eve, we simply do not have the maturity at such a young age to understand the graveness of sex either before, during, or outside of marriage. We mostly rely upon the models our parents set for us.
Young women tend to develop faster than their male counterparts and as a result discover their powers of sexuality as older and higher status men begin to pay attention (much like Eve receiving awareness before Adam). Youth represents fertility and in this limited window of fecundity, men are drawn to women who can produce multiple healthy offspring. To the frustration of young men (who receive their awareness later), they must learn to compete with other male suitors in order to win the favor of fertile women. Men must develop themselves in fitness, skill, wealth, and character (read: Power) in order to attract and maintain spousal appeal lest she be seduced by a snake.
Due to physical differences between the sexes, women learn to advertise their sexual availability through covert mechanisms. Humans have a hidden ovulation as opposed to our primate cousins whose genitalia swell and redden to indicate a fertility window. Barely perceptible scent pheromones are really the only unmasked clue to a woman's estrus cycle. Other signs might include wearing revealing clothing or certain colors such as red to indicate sexual receptiveness. Studies have shown that women tend to subscribe to dual mating instincts also known as hypergamy. This sexual strategy is possibly the reason why women are drawn to the bad boy during ovulation and the nice guy at other times of their cycle. The bad boy possesses the attractive genetics for strong and healthy offspring, while the nice guy is more likely to be kind and caring as both a parent and husband through difficult times like pregnancy. In the creation story, Satan was the first bad boy, while Adam was the first nice guy.
The nature of attraction between men and women is quite different. Men are wired to be attracted to youth and beauty and to spread their seed far and wide without a 9 month lag in reproductive capability (ie. billions of sperm = greater chances of genetic propagation). Women are wired to be sexually drawn to the most attractive male within their environment as displayed by competitive attention from other women (ie finite supply of eggs = missed opportunity costs of breeding with superior genes). When paired in monogamy, both partners must sacrifice their biological predilections in order to remain faithful to the relationship and their family. Men must suppress their instinct to engage with other sexually available women. Women must suppress their instinct to act on sexual attraction with other men who they feel is a stronger more desireable mate.
Satan poisoned humanity by cuckolding Adam and defiling his wife, not through force, but by her willful succumbing into temptation. In doing so, he introduced the world to the knowledge of infidelity, the forbidden fruit our Creator tried to protect us from eating. Eve slept with another, became pregnant, and tried to cover her sinful conception by seducing Adam into becoming her bastard offspring's illegitimate father. In such a wicked manner, Satan had fractured human nature to such an extent that we still suffer from this trauma today.
Humankind carried on for hundreds of generations with the stain of our ancestor's sin upon our souls. Like any rational human, we came to accept our fallen state and did our best to live with our nature. We developed codes of conduct, societies, and religion to help instill a sense of right and wrong so that we could teach our children to learn from our mistakes and help guide them onto a righteous path. We learned that sin is inevitable after a child grows past a certain age, but through love we came to understand and offer forgiveness. Ancient prophets began to speculate on the birth of a savior. Their spiritual antennae picked up broadcasts of a miraculous virgin birth. A woman of a pure and chaste spirit was born without the stain of original sin who we call Mary. She along with her husband-to-be both submitted to the news delivered by an angel that God had planned on planting His righteous seed in Mary to redeem the sins of both Adam and Eve. This child was special and was to be called Jesus. Rather than being born as an earthly prince, His kingdom would not be of this world. He would grow and become a man with supernatural abilities to heal corrupted minds, bodies, and souls. He would teach others to harness these gifts through the development of faith and obedience to God the Father. He would restore the corruption in our souls by serving as a leader, teacher, healer, and sacrificial offering.
The mysteries of genetic predisposition to cheat, lie, and sin might rest within our blood, but the good news is that we ourselves or even our children don't have to suffer the same fate. Christ came into this world as proof of God's love who willingly died because mankind had reached the tipping point of corruption. Our family tree no longer bore viable fruit. The heirs of corrupt parents had led to generations of corrupt children and no matter how hard we tried to fix ourselves, we needed divine grace.
Today when contemplating marriage as a spiritual union between husband and wife, many people enter this sacrament with sexual histories of past partners. Understanding that we have been forgiven by our Creator, we are faced with the choice to forgive our spouses of past transgressions; however, marriage is not without condition or consequence. Besides natural attraction, one should weigh the choice to enter into holy matrimony with how much faith each partner has. Faith is like self esteem as opposed to ego. Narcissists derive material and emotional validation from external sources the way an adulterer enters into commitment; whereas, individuals who have faith in themselves do not need this illusion to achieve inner happiness or make lasting commitment.
People of sincere faith tend to be faithful people and worthy of commitment.
The risks of marital infidelity, producing insidious offspring, and emotional damages that come from unholy unions is worth the extra due diligence in making sure one's marriage (and family) will have the greatest chance of success and prosperity.