-->
@Castin
This is a part of the Bible that's a mystery, but with many valid links to consider (symbols of snakes used in different religion cultures down to the medical field, Reptilian Complex, etc. ).Of Eden, of course. Christians and the western world say the Serpent is Satan, duh. But it's worth noting that Genesis was not written by Christians. It was written by ancient Hebrews who did not have the concept of the devil that we do now.In the story, this one creature is responsible for the existence of all suffering. It literally ruins everything. And it knowingly and sneakily causes this to happen. Why? What did the authors intend this creature to be? Where did such malicious intent come from?And was this supposed to be a real snake, or a representation of something else? Voltaire once wrote:It was so decidedly a real serpent, that all its species, which had before walked on their feet, were condemned to crawl on their bellies. No serpent, no animal of any kind, is called Satan, or Belzebub, or Devil, in the Pentateuch.
A key ingredient of the serpent in the Garden, and today's deadly snakes is that there's no appeal to human morality or sanity. When a human commits a horrific act, we wonder why. We may appeal to their sanity and lack of human compassion. When a snake attacks a human, the snake is the equivalent of a movie monster for the person being attacked. There's no appeal to reptilian compassion. There's no negotiating with a snake that of course doesn't communicate with us intellectually, just as the serpent in the garden was not one to negotiate with, but who did communicate intellectually with Eve. While we may not know exactly what that serpent was, there's a considerably valid lesson to be learned from that given account whether it was conveyed literally, or symbolically.
