VENEREAL DISEASES (June 10, 2005) Have you ever wondered where venereal diseases came from? I have, and primarily because I was brought up in a religious environment, where I was taught that God had made everything, including human beings. So I naturally thought that, if God had made everything, it didn't make any sense that something like syphilis was around. I just couldn't make it work. I did not dare pose this challenge to any of my mentors because I knew what they would say. They'd start in with the sin thing, how God had made everything perfect in the beginning and the way Man had messed it all up by disobeying Him. Whatever. Somehow, I couldn't make that work either. If sin affected anything, it might be reflected in the way people behaved, the way they treated each other, like in murder, adultery, theft and so on, basic ten-commandments stuff. That's what I envisioned sin doing, not giving people venereal disease. I eventually came to the conclusion (at the suggestion of a friend who I confided in a lot) that people got venereal diseases as the result of having sex with animals. When I first heard this suggestion, I half-heartedly accepted it. But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. A venereal disease is something that makes its way into us from the outside world, as opposed to a disease that may begin inside of us, usually because of some genetic predisposition. But if we get it from a location outside of our bodies, where is the most likely place? You can't of course respond by saying that another person is outside of us, because another person is also a human being. What I'm trying to figure out is how human beings got hold of it in the first place. In other words, how did the first human being contract syphilis, or gonorrhea. And I keep coming back to the animal contact thing. It's the most likely possibility. The Bible actually mentions such behavior, and expressly forbids it:
Anyone who has sexual relations with an animal must be put to death. (Exodus 22:19)
This is the NIV translation. In this particular instance, however, I prefer the King James version:
Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.
"...shall surely be put to death." Unequivocally, without question, kill the bastard. Later, in the book of Leviticus, the Israelites are commanded to slay both man and beast in the event such a sexual union between them is discovered:
And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast.
If such bestiality is indeed where venereal diseases came from, I most wholeheartedly concur. Or should I say, Amen?
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