Righteousness of left-handedness

Was Dexter smart because he was called Dexter or was he called Dexter because he was smart?

Dexter is formed of two Latin roots “dex” which means “right” and “-ter” meaning “of direction”. So if you are right-handed, you are dexter, and won’t be burned at stake for being possessed by the Devil. You see, the ancients considered doing things with one’s right hand to be the right, or godly way of doing things. If you were rebellious and were lucky enough to not be deemed a heretic you could go about practising the ways of the Devil, but you’d be called “sinister”. It comes from Latin “sinister” meaning “of left-handed” and is the opposite of dexter. Over time, “sinister” came to be wholly associated with anything deceptive, or evil.

Since the right and the left of it is mostly associated with one’s hands, “dexter” also eventually came to be associated with “hands” and therefore skilfulness. If you are adept at doing something, you’re dextrous. If you’re adept at doing that thing with both of your hands, you’re ambidextrous and you have something in common with Leonardo da Vinci. Even science adopted the terms “dexter” and “sinister” to distinguish between two objects which are mirror images of each other (like enantiomers, optically opposite isomers, sea shells, etc.).

All this is where the notion of performing every pious activity with your right hand comes from. It begs one to ask a question though: Is God not dextrous enough to be ambidextrous (or tri- and quart- in some cases)?