Adam and Eve and the First Sin

Adam and Eve, according to the Bible, were the first parents. Until they sinned against God by disobeying Him, they lived in the beautiful garden, the Paradise. Satan the devil tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. On the advice of his wife, Adam also ate the fruit, and infuriated by their disobedience, God drove the couple out of the beautiful garden. Henceforth, man was destined to live by toil and die eventually. Originally, God intended the crown of all His creations to live without poverty, hardships or death ever threatening him.

When the Bible was written, this story had probably been in circulation for many centuries in the Middle East. Without any natural barriers to prevent the easy and essential demographic movements in the vast semi arid area, this legend of an era of plenty and happiness had been told and retold down many generations.

Started undoubtedly by a genius, the legend tries to explain the uniqueness of human misery in the whole of animal kingdom. All other animals and insects and plants fit perfectly in the grand pattern of the universe. They have no miseries, worries, poverty, old age, fear of death or disease. Wretchedness, like superior intelligence and perception, is known only among humans.

Undoubtedly, eating of the forbidden fruit is symbolic of something else. Some believe that it was the sexual act. This argument is foolish and absurd. Man, like all other animals, has the sexual instinct and to forbid it is not only wicked but also preposterous. The God that forbids sex is the creation of a perverted or troubled mind.

What, then, was that actually symbolised the forbidden fruit?

Sex was intended as the supreme act and expression of love without conditions between man and woman. Man was of course blessed with the supreme physical, mental and spiritual elevation and pleasure out of the sexual act. But when a man has sex with a woman, and when there is no love between them, the couple are having physical pleasure only, that is, they are indulging in degraded sex.

Man could eat and enjoy the pleasurable taste of fruits and nuts and other edible things in nature. But when he eats to enjoy the pleasure it is something else. You can make a pair of shoes in which your feet are perfectly comfortable. But you are not expected to cut and shape your feet so that the shoes fit perfectly.

The perverted way of satisfying two of the basic needs and gifts was the first sin. In order to have plenty of foods, man started agriculture. Gluttony and sex for physical pleasure only, followed. When man cut the first tree to satisfy his exaggerated needs, he started on a path to destruction from which no going back was possible. Instead of living in nature in harmony with it, he tried to modify it, and mould it to his advantage and fancy.

Man’s level of consciousness dwindled and he has fallen to the sate of an intelligent animal from the state of a god. His wisdom and intelligence are curses rather than assets. Animals in the jungle fare much better than man.

As man ‘advances’ in technology, his soul diminishes in excellence, and most modern men and women are intelligent but soulless animals. The way out of this quagmire is the undoing of human civilization, which is clearly impossible.