# Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 23, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561 "2006-11-23T16:38:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lou\_Stool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47774/32.png) [@Lou\_Stool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lou_Stool)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/1 "2006-11-23T16:38:01Z")
If they were not birthed in the usual way, they would not have an umbilical cord, so would they have been buttonless? ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/2 "2006-11-23T16:43:59Z")
Adam and Eve, of course, didn’t exist in the literal Genesis sense, but perhaps this OP could be phrased better. Gabriela made an interesting post a few months ago on the belly button. It sounded a lot less vestigal than I assumed. Can a human, in theory, survive without a belly button (say, if I decided to have freak comestic surgery and get it removed), or would you have to remove too many tubings and nerves and the like? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/3 "2006-11-23T16:44:24Z")
Well, according to their autopsy . . . How would we know? You’re talking about two mythical figures. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/4 "2006-11-23T16:50:50Z")
First, the Adam and Eve story is evidently an etiological myth, a story told by the Hebrews to explain how human beings came to be, and how they came to be in the state we find ourselves in. Like many other ancient peoples, the Hebrews knew the value of _story_ in explaining abstract metaphysical doctrine in a way easily comprehended by the average person. Only on the anachronistic theory that the account of their creation is literal historical narrative rather than myth or story, do the questions of this sort (did they have navels? where did Cain’s wife come from? etc.) have any significance. _Within the myth_, we note that they were created as the archetypical human beings. Adam is the Hebrew word for “man” (_anthropos, homo, Mann_ – human being – rather than _andros, vir, Mensch_ – adult male); Eve is closely associated with the Hebrew for “mother.” As such, they were no doubt created with exactly what human beings have – navel included. They were also created as presumably young adults, not babies, so adding in a navel that was a relic of a non-existent umbilical cord is a minor design detail. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/5 "2006-11-23T17:49:30Z")
**Lou Stool** , you’ve been starting a lot of threads on the stories of the Judeo-Christian bible. The answer to all of them is easy: they cannot be answered rationally and factually. They are either instructive fables, parables, stories to make a conceptual point or they are actual miracles that must be taken on faith outside the scientific structure of answers. If you want to ask what are the range of fanciful stories that people have made up over the years to explain away the lack of rationality in the fables, then you can get real answers. However, none of those fanciful answers are any better than any of the others. They can’t be. The stories were not designed to be rational. In short, don’t expect to get any answers. There aren’t any. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/6 "2006-11-23T17:54:48Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] **Lou Stool** In short, don’t expect to get any answers. There aren’t any. [/QUOTE] And, since there are no factual answers, let’s move this to MPSIMS. **samclem** GQ Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/7 "2006-11-23T18:18:45Z")
_“Well you can just rock me to sleep tonight!”_ ---
**Author:** ![Lou\_Stool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47774/32.png) [@Lou\_Stool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lou_Stool)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/8 "2006-11-23T18:34:32Z")
Expano, I have posted exactly 2 threads since finding this site. These are just questions that I find interesting. Would you feel better if I asked questions about politics or cooking? ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/9 "2006-11-23T18:45:39Z")
[QUOTE=dre2xl] Can a human, in theory, survive without a belly button (say, if I decided to have freak comestic surgery and get it removed), or would you have to remove too many tubings and nerves and the like? [/QUOTE] My FIL has no belly button, the result of a hernia surgery a couple of years back. He doesn’t seem to have suffered any ill effects. (Looks weird, though.) ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/10 "2006-11-23T19:00:25Z")
In his 1857 book _Omphalos_, Philip Gosse, father of the much more well-known Sir Edmund Gosse, argued that, an instant after the single catastrophic act of Creation, the Earth presented the appearance of having existed for millions of years. The title alluded to a much older Christian philosophical debate about whether the first man, Adam, had a navel. Gosse’s book was much criticised, both by Creationists and Rationalist, from opposite ends of the spectrum, some pointing out that a logical deduction from this was that God put fossils in the rocks to play a joke on paleontologists. _Father and Son_ tells the story of Edmund Gosse’s troubled relationship with his parents. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/11 "2006-11-23T19:34:38Z")
\*So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. \* --Genesis 1:27 The bellybutton problem is in fact the key to properly understanding this passage. If God created man in his own image, then how could he create them _both_ male and female? “Image” is singular, so it makes no sense to propose that God has both male and female images. Therefore, God created man as both male and female, but in such a manner that _also_ incorporates God’s own true image. That image is the bellybutton. Consider the expression “navel-gazing,” often used to indicate introspection or meditation on spiritual matters. But God alone of all beings does not need to navel-gaze… because God\* is \* a navel. It’s no accident that the Greek word for bellybutton, _omphalos_, also signifies “center of the world.” Who else but God could occupy that illustrious position? Gaze at your navel, and you see God staring back at you. Each of us is born with the image of God, the Cosmic Bellybutton, on our person; an eternal reminder linking us from child to mother all the way back to our divinely benaveled progenitors in the Garden of Eden. This is why soulless entities, such as clones and the titular succubus from “I Dream of Jeannie,” are often depicted without navels: because they do not share in the blessing of God’s love for mankind. Before you ask, “outies” are simply an indication that God is watching those particular people more closely. For what reason? _No one knows._ ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/12 "2006-11-23T21:02:49Z")
[QUOTE=dre2xl] Can a human, in theory, survive without a belly button (say, if I decided to have freak comestic surgery and get it removed), or would you have to remove too many tubings and nerves and the like? [/QUOTE] I had a cousin who was morbidly obese; in fact she ultimately died from obesity-related problems. At one point in her adult life, she developed some kind of infection in her navel, and it had to be removed. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/13 "2006-11-23T22:14:54Z")
**Lou Fool** , it might help us with answering your questions and not joking about them if you described what sort of answers you would like to get and why. ---
**Author:** ![mrald](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mrald](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrald)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/14 "2006-11-23T22:36:38Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] - This is why soulless entities, such as clones and the titular succubus from “I Dream of Jeannie,” are often depicted without navels: because they do not share in the blessing of God’s love for mankind. [/QUOTE] Well, actually the network freaked and said it wasn’t proper… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/15 "2006-11-23T22:47:51Z")
[QUOTE=Lou Stool] If they were not birthed in the usual way, they would not have an umbilical cord, so would they have been buttonless? [/QUOTE] You might as well ask, if humans didn’t evolve, why do we have toenails? If God is your thing, then God gave you toenails and a bellybutton. He figured you’d look doofy without them. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/16 "2006-11-24T00:50:59Z")
[QUOTE=fachverwirrt] My FIL has no belly button, the result of a hernia surgery a couple of years back. He doesn’t seem to have suffered any ill effects. (Looks weird, though.) [/QUOTE] That’s right. If you don’t use it, you don’t need it. He’ll never miss it. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/17 "2006-11-24T00:51:53Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] Before you ask, “outies” are simply an indication that God is watching those particular people more closely. For what reason? _No one knows._ [/QUOTE] Somebody stole His car stereo. Whe He finds out who…there’s gonna be trouble in River City! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/18 "2006-11-24T02:55:50Z")
[QUOTE=mrald] Well, actually the network freaked and said it wasn’t proper… 😛 [/QUOTE] In the context of producing a 1960’s TV show, for all intents and purposes the network **was** God! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Subway\_Prophet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@Subway\_Prophet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subway_Prophet)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/19 "2006-11-24T02:58:14Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] It’s no accident that the Greek word for bellybutton, _omphalos_, also signifies “center of the world.” Who else but God could occupy that illustrious position? Gaze at your navel, and you see God staring back at you. [/QUOTE] That…that was beautiful. Encore! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561/20 "2006-11-24T03:45:54Z")
[QUOTE=Lou Stool] If they were not birthed in the usual way, they would not have an umbilical cord, so would they have been buttonless? [/QUOTE] According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve), Adam and Eve did have belly buttons. A better question I think would be "Did Adam have a penis before God decided that Adam was lonely and need a mate. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-adam-and-eve-have-belly-buttons/381561.md?page=2)