An Athiests Guide to the Bible: Cain and Abel

In the previous Guide, Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden for eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge after being convinced by a talking snake. Now we find out what happened to Adam and Eve outside the Garden of Eden. 

Then Adam had intercourse with his wife, and she became pregnant. She bore a son and said, "By the Lord's help I have gotten a son." So, she named him Cain. Later she gave birth to another son, Abel. Abel became a shepherd, but Cain was a farmer.

These biblical writers didn’t muck around, did they? Straight to the sex! And Eve got pregnant straight away. Now I know it’s possible to get on the first go, and it’s not really specified how long it took them to get pregnant, but it seems like it was almost instantaneous.

There’s also very little in the way of description of the pregnancy, or the birth itself. Clearly written by a male with little regard for women. Luckily, not all men have such little regard for the role women play in history. But let’s break down the pregnancy a bit.

God cursed Eve, causing an increase to her trouble in pregnancy and pain in childbirth. Neither of these are elaborated on at all. She’s the mother of mankind, surely some sort of description beyond getting pregnant and having kids is necessitated here? I don’t expect the writer to give a blow by blow account of the whole ordeal, but there’s not even so much of a mention of her being in any pain during labour at all, which she would have been as there were no doctors, no pain relief medications, and she wouldn’t have been to a parenting class to learn any breathing techniques. As a woman, full props to Eve. She did it the hard way, with only Adam to lend a hand and I’m sure he was next to useless, there never having been a birth before.

Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, Eve credits the guy who cursed her with the pain of childbirth. That is the last thing I would be doing. God’s help isn’t even mentioned, so what was it that God actually did to help Eve? It isn’t explained. As we will see in future guides, some things are detailed to a level that induces a coma when reading it, while other things are skimmed over as if they hardly matter. It’s infuriating, to say the least. 

After some time, Cain brought some of his harvest and gave it as an offering to the Lord. Then Abel brought the first lamb born to one of his sheep, killed it, and gave the best parts of it as an offering. The Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering, but he rejected Cain and his offering. Cain became furious, and he scowled in anger. Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why that scowl on your face? If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling; but because you have done evil, sin is crouching at your door. It wants to rule you, but you must overcome it."

If someone could tell me, based only on what has been written so far, why Cain’s offering was so bad, that’d be great, because I feel like I’ve missed something somewhere. Cain offered the product of his own labour, just as Abel did, yet one offering is better than the other.

Obviously the two are grown men by this point (or at least teenagers, given events that are about to happen) so did God tell the brothers what sort of offering to make? You’d think this would be worthy of noting down. It would go a long way to explaining why God rejected Cain’s offering.

Some versions of the bible make it seem that perhaps Cain didn’t bring the best of his harvest while Abel brought the finest cut of meat. Is this what is meant by “the right thing” and why is it a matter of good and evil? God sounds a little judgemental, and a little harsh. 

Then Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out in the fields." When they were out in the fields, Cain turned on his brother and killed him.

He did what, now?

Could Cain have had some sort of brain injury, specifically relating to the area of the brain that deals with impulse control? If Cain had acted immediately, killing his brother on the spot, then this would be quite a good explanation but he displayed a desire to conceal the act by taking his brother to the field.

This leads us to a more psychological rationale for his behaviour – narcissism, sociopathy, psychopathy – there are many disorders in which the elimination of a competitor is a possibility.

Cain’s overreaction is somewhat understandable if we take a deeper look at it from a psychological point of view. Cain is the elder son, yet it seems that Abel gets preferential treatment. It’s not specified (another example of a bit more detail being warranted) but it would seem like this has been going on their whole life. God rejecting the offering was the final straw, and sibling rivalry only goes part of the way to explain how bad Cain’s reaction is.

If we look at it from the perspective of a person who has been made to feel like he’s not good enough his whole life, and is then told by the god who created his parents that he has done evil and is courting sin, I don’t think that would have gone down well and definitely explains the snap which leads to Abel’s death.

This mix of personality and triggering event could very well explain the actions of Cain, especially if he is still a teenager and has not fully developed impulse control.

But how did God not see this coming? He allowed Abel to die. He gave him no warning and, at this stage, had not set out the commandments. This all-knowing, all-powerful being seems pretty inept. I’m all for having children learn lessons on their own, but I’d step in if someone innocent was going to be seriously injured, let alone die. 

The Lord asked Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He answered, "I don't know. Am I supposed to take care of my brother?" Then the Lord said, "Why have you done this terrible thing? Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground, like a voice calling for revenge. You are placed under a curse and can no longer farm the soil. It has soaked up your brother's blood as if it had opened its mouth to receive it when you killed him. If you try to grow crops, the soil will not produce anything; you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth."

Curses seem to run in this family, and God seems to like doling them out. This one takes away the one skill that Cain seemed to have – an ability to grow crops. As far as other curses and punishments go, this one seems to be about the most accurate in in terms of punishment befitting the crime. It’s still harsh by modern standards but being made into a beggar gets Cain off pretty easily by biblical standards. 

And Cain said to the Lord, "This punishment is too hard for me to bear. You are driving me off the land and away from your presence. I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth, and anyone who finds me will kill me." But the Lord answered, "No. If anyone kills you, seven lives will be taken in revenge." So, the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who met him not to kill him. And Cain went away from the Lord's presence and lived in a land called "Wandering," which is east of Eden.

This is where things start getting a bit weird, chronology-wise. Cain is afraid that someone will kill him. Who? As far as we know, Adam and Eve are the only two people on the planet so far. If he talking about future people? In that case, he’d still have a good 30 years or so head start. But God doesn’t seem to notice this either. Or maybe he’s just setting his mind at ease.

Also, how would people know what the mark on Cain meant? Yes, all the people speak the same language at this point in the bible so they could get the information verbally, but that is an unreliable method of getting what seems to be a pretty important message across. Maybe God just put the information into their brain, in which case he’s interfering in the free will of man when it would have been far simpler to just interfere in Cain’s brain before any of this happened.

And so, we reach the end of another Guide. Next time we’ll look at the descendants of Cain and ponder where he got a wife from.