In this groundbreaking work,
Martin Zender asks the one question that no other book
on human sexuality asks: Why is there sex in the first
place? No other book makes procreation a side-effect
rather than the raison d'etre of sexual attraction.
Never content with knowing how things are (everyone
knows that women look great in pumps while men look
ridiculous), Zender explains why they are. From the
genesis of eroticism in Eden to your bedroom, Divine
Principles of Sexual Attraction demystifies the
behaviors of both sexes, at the same time making both
men and women content with who God made them. You'll
never look at the opposing gender the same way again.
***************
The magnetism between men and
women is the most powerful, most prolific force on
Earth. It is a power that launches armies, shatters
kingdoms, and destroys as many lives as it generates.
Why is it so ridiculously—strong? Many would say:
procreation. Yet God could certainly bring more human
beings into the world without, say, spaghetti straps. Or
Brut cologne. Or kissing; why the urge to mesh mouths in
the first place? What does the exchange of saliva have
to do with the transference of seed? And this: does the
race perish apart from red roses? Lace-topped stockings?
Satin sheets? I am wondering now about soft music and
candlelight. Can we not duplicate ourselves without
Ravel’s Boléro?
***************
We are
taught to picture God as an old man with a white beard.
No description of Him could be further from the truth;
God does not resemble Merlin the Magician. God is not a
man, and neither does He resemble one. God Himself is
invisible; He is spirit (John 4:24); spirit is His
essence. Yet His essence is the most beautiful thing
imaginable. We cannot see God, but we behold, day by
day, that which has come from Him, that is, His
creation.
Notice in Genesis the progressive nature of God’s
creation. He begins with plants: azalea bushes,
sunflowers, wheat, grass, elm trees, and dandelions. He
then fills the seas with living, moving souls: plankton,
starfish, crabs, scallops, seals, and the giant sperm
whale. The sperm whale is a step up from the
dandelion—somewhat. The celestial citizens, beholding
all this, marvel at God’s power.
Without stopping, God then populates the near heavens
with various flying things: eagles, hawks, wrens, and
the yellow-bellied sapsucker. The sapsucker surely
stupefied the celestial worldmights, who no doubt
supposed it to be God’s coup de grace.
They
were wrong about that.
Next
from God’s hand came the life that crawls upon land:
ants, porcupines, warthogs, elephants, and cats. Ah, now
we have it. Surely with cats God had exhausted His
creative genius.
But
no.
On
day six, God created Adam. As Adam arose from a pile of
mud, a hush befell heaven. Before the gaze of all stood
a being of reason and wonder, able to kneel and sniff
the soil in awe at his own quintessence. At last, the
ceiling.
Well, not so fast. Surely heaven caught its collective
breath as Eve ascended to full height, dressed in a halo
of morning mist. What wide, smooth hips. Her legs! My
God! They’re longer than the gazelle’s! Birds must have
alighted upon her, while butterflies flitted to her
hair. The piano had yet to be invented, but
whatever celestial instrument prefaced it struck
gorgeous tones. For here was not merely another human,
but an improved specimen.
In our modern language, Eve
was Adam 2.0.
The
celestial attendants looked at God, then at Eve; then at
God, then at Eve; then at God, then at Eve; God, Eve,
God, Eve—on it went. With the thousandth pass, light
dawned. Adam mirrored God’s strength, but here, in the
woman, the celestial world perceived God’s crushing
beauty.
As
did the first man.
Woman is proof, upon the Earth, of the irresistible
gorgeousness of God.
Therefore a man shall forsake
his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and
they two become one flesh. —Genesis 2:23-24
