The Garden of Eden
BOOK III: The Enigmatic Mystery (Science & Religion) – Consideration #186
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Tuesday April 29, 2025
“To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.”
– Romans 5:12-14
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
It is important to remember that Christianity is based on a Biblical narrative, and therefore Christian theology is a consequence of that narrative. Narratives begin with a problem, or obstacle, that must be overcome, and end with the resolution of that problem or obstacle.
In the Biblical narrative the problem is that mankind’s disobedience to God leads to the “fall of mankind” from their original intended purpose; in Christianity the resolution of this problem, is the death and resurrection of Jesus the “Christ,” or “Messiah” in the New Testament. Jesus’ complete obedience to God’s Will reestablishes the unity of God and mankind. Jesus, as God, sacrifices himself as atonement for mankind’s original sin of disobedience which had separated them from God. This redemption makes the Kingdom of Heaven once again possible on the earth.
But it all starts in the Garden of Eden.
CONSIDERATION #186 – The Garden of Eden
According to Genesis, God creates the physical universe, including human beings, and gives them dominion over the earth. In particular, a beautiful garden with everything they need to enjoy the existence God had intended for them. However, in the middle of paradise was a particular tree called the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." God allowed Adam and Eve to partake of everything in the garden, except for the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." This was the one caveat.
And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 2:16-17
At first things were going very well in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were “at one” with God, Earth, and themselves. However, a tempter, in the form of a serpent, sees that Eve is distracted, and considers it an opportunity to destroy God’s plans for the earth and Mankind by exploiting her innocence and vulnerability.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”
Genesis 3:1
The serpent is setting Eve up with this question. The question itself is a lie, and the serpent knows it. God never told Adam and Eve they could not eat from any tree in the garden. It is a lie designed to inspire a specific reaction from Eve, which it does. A response that opens up the possibility of choice.
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
Genesis 3:2-3
Here, the nature of evil is clearly manifested as deception. The serpent intercedes in the relationship between Eve and God by casting doubt on the “Truth of God.” He also offers the first temptation to human beings by essentially stating that God is not only lying, but that He is afraid. Afraid of who? Adam and Eve. Thereby making them as powerful, or even more powerful than God.
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Genesis 3:4-5
Eve eats the forbidden fruit and then shares the deception with her husband, Adam.
“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”Genesis 3:6
This empirical act alters the consciousness of human beings, plunging them into a new duality of choice involving the previously unknown considerations of good and evil. Fracturing not only their relationship with the physical world, but also their unity with God as well. We are not told what the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil actually was or how it actually worked; it is a mystery never fully explained. As is another story about another tree called The Tree of Life, which is a separate consideration of its own.
“God’s newly created world was now a world of duality.”
The actions taken by Adam and Eve change God’s plan. Not only because human beings disobeyed God, but because of the natural consequences resulting from that disobedience. The once unified aspects of the physical and the non-physical world were now forever separated. The mind of human beings had been divided; God’s newly created world was now a world of duality. The unified consciousness of human beings had died. They had lost the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Then both of them knew things they had never known before…
The Lord God said, “Just like one of us, the man can now tell the difference between good and evil.”
Genesis 3:7,22
The world had changed for Adam and Eve. And for God. Mankind had fallen from grace not because of disobedience, but as a natural consequence of that disobedience. Like a parent cautioning a child not to touch poison ivy who disobeys and develops a rash; the parent did not cause the rash, nor are they happy that the child is suffering. However, once the child touches the poison ivy it’s too late; they will suffer the consequences of their action. Not because the parent wants them to suffer for their disobedience, but because that’s what happens when you touch poison ivy.
“…their choice could not be rescinded by God.”
Once Adam and Eve disobey God, their perception of the world changes; their minds have been “poisoned” by eating the fruit of duality. This was their choice, and their choice could not be rescinded by God. Human beings would now forever be at war with themselves.
This would be a war of choices, a constant battle and struggle over choosing thoughts and actions that were either good or evil. A war between the physical dust that had formed them, and the Spirit of God that had informed them with the breath of life. Unity of self and Union with God were lost. Now that they were separated from God’s will and intention, they would become responsible for their own choices.
Sin had entered the world.
POSTSCRIPT
God now becomes the protagonist in a narrative in which He must find a way to re-establish and heal His relationship with Mankind that had been destroyed through their disobedience. God must find a way to heal the fractured mind of human beings. From this point on, God’s main motivation is to re-constitute His original relationship with Mankind; allowing for the Kingdom of Heaven to become re-established on earth as originally intended. However, human beings’ fall from grace, or “at oneness,” into the never-ending world of duality proved more difficult to overcome than even God anticipated.
Ultimately, God would have to become physically manifested on earth and solve the dilemma Himself. However, human beings were not ready for such a divine action in their current state of separateness from the Truth, or the Word. When dualism provided them with the power of individual choice between good and evil, they almost always chose evil, leading them further and further away from God and His plan to re-implement the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth. They would have to be prepared for such an experience. The first step in this process required human recognition that evil is evil.
This concept of understanding the duality of reality through moral choices would influence every aspect of Western civilization.
Next week we consider a Special Edition Newsletter challenging the generally accepted reason for the HAL 9000 computer’s actions in the iconic sci-fi classic about Artificial Intelligence…
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