“That’s bullshit Noey and you know it.” Simon’s voice was sharp and serious now, “That thing you just read is proof enough. So the real question is, how do you feel about Nate?”
“‘Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee’.” I don’t really understand this Amity.
“It’s fine, this is a pretty oblique reference to Asherah Poles. This translation sort of just ignores that name, but some Semitic peoples would carve poles to a goddess Asherah to help with childbirth and fertility.” Amity replied. Nate smiled at having learned something new, and part of her tingled with joy.
“I’ve never heard of Asherah.”
“Asherah was originally the wife of Yahweh, until the Jahwists reconquered the land of Judea after the Babylonian Captivity. They were strict monotheists and rewrote large parts of the bible to remove references to other gods.”
“You make it sound like the bible isn’t the word of God.”
Amity froze for a second, “The bible was made by man for man. It was inspired by God, not dictated.”
“Do you think that maybe some things aren’t always bad then? Like morality is relative?”
“What do you mean exactly?”
“I mean, how could these people have known 2500 years ago what problems we’d face today? How could they know the answer to complex moral questions?”
“I don’t know these answers Nathan. Maybe you should follow your heart. If you’re made in God’s image as we’re made in yours, then your intuition must be, somehow, godly,” Amity’s processor sped up and she started breathing more heavily to cool down.
“You’re right, Amity. I should just be honest. Thank you very much,” Nate got out of the seat and pocketed his rosary. “I’ll let you know how it goes.”
He left after he finished talking, and Amity finally came to her senses, “Sweet Mary mother of God, what have I done?”
