In the Genesis it is told that once Adam ate the forbidden fruit God said: “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever “. How do you interpret this passage?
Love,
Paulo
Knowing the good and the evil is to know the greedy of good and the fear of evil.
In exchange for knowing the good and the evil the man lost the right to eat from the tree of life.
The life tree has become the new forbidden tree.
One cannot have both:
* greedy and fear
* eternal life
Man is an expression of God. God is life force flowing through all living beings. He is our essence.
By going through experiences through which man can learn about good and evil (eating from the fruit of the tree of good and evil), he can go beyond. He has the capacity to connect and experience ‘life force’, God himself, in a direct way.
This life force is eternal. Our bodies are just a temporally expression of this force. By connecting again we live forever.
Recently I got a nice present representing the tree of life. Receiving this present is for me a sign that I am living my legend. More in my blog at http://ansdeblauwe.wordpress.com/2007/11/06/signs-synchronicities/
Ans
Everything is interpreted based upon the information assumed by reader, before even reading the passage.
For instance, most people bring the idea of “there is a God out there” into their readings of the Bible and many other books. With that foundation, you picture a God saying something about another creature, The Man in this case.
I don’t think a God out there can possibly exist. God is US.
So it’s not about “a sentence” from a judge, like the one Michael Vick received today in Virginia.
It’s simply a spiritual law. The perception (labeled “knowledge” in Genesis) of good and evil is what keeps you living in death. (If you are gay, and your mind has been shaped to believe that being gay is evil, then you are going to struggle with self-esteem for much of your life, when who said it’s evil to begin with???)
If you have perceptions about yourself that say you are evil, then you are therefore abiding in a miserable world, what I call “hell.” Many of us have been there.
And that hellish world leads to your death, which is what this Scripture is saying.
If you think negatively about your Authentic Self, you are abiding in death (see previous Genesis scriptures).
If you see yourself as the beautiful, perfect, awesome Manifestation of God that you are, then the eternal life that created you will sustain you forever.
We don’t HAVE to die — we die because we’re taught to and most never question it, only accept it.
In my humble opinion.
Paulo !
I read it three times, don’t understand it really, am egerly awiating others, and YOUR Response too, how come u never respond to u’r own questions ? make an exception and answer this one, like a normal wol, we are entiltled to know your views too on these tough questions that u ask us !
It is simple. If there is no evil we don’t know good and evil is a choice. Adam nor Eve were born evil.
A guess.
There Adam has chosen to eat from a Forbidden Tree. He chose to disobey and sin.
Now God is saying well, to repair the damage done, hopefully Adam will now choose to eat from the Tree of Life. Maybe the lessons that life will now have to teach him as he is no longer hidden from evil, Adam chose to expose himself to it.
That is the “shame” of Adam and Eve wearing the leaf. It is that now they are both “exposed” to evil, not completely innocent anymore.
Kathleen xx
Eating fobidden fruit, Man has obtained choice for good or evil.This Choice is life tree.
Before he ate of the forbidden fruit, man was One.
Upon eating he received the analytical faculty and thus divided his universe. He saw the two sides of everything, mistaking it for something else than its origin.
Now he has to reach out to the tree of life, and make his way back to unity.
Dear Paulo,
I was once in Cabo Frio, Brazil, day dreaming and looking at a beautiful tree. I suddenly had an intuition that what is described in the bible as eating the forbidden fruit and the subsequent expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise came from the realisation, for the first time, of their Ego and consequently being fragmented and disconnected from the whole encompassing love of God and that knowledge and loss would have resulted in all the misery suffered by human kind…
What do you think?
The consumption of the cursed fruit was the birth of the Zahir. There is nothing evil about man (else God wouldn’t have let them roam about naked) yet Adam and Eve, by their new knowledge, that was somewhat incomplete (God is the Ever-knowing One) thought their nakedness to be evil. From that moment, man has created good, and evil. Yet the concept of good and evil have changed over the years.
We know that death came into the world as a result of consumption of the fruit. So, it is sure that death was necessary to erase the effect of the apple of knowledge.
Don’t you think, without the realisation of death, man would have stayed enslaved to the Zahir forever? That is why, mortality was necessary. That is why, the fruit of eternal life is deserving only to those who have rid themselves of the fear of death, the struggle for existence and followed the hand of God, their destinies.
(btw, that’s all fancy talk, I don’t believe the author of Genesis meant all that when he wrote down a folklore three-thousand years ago, but if asked to interpret, I would do it just like that.)
AVC,
what is this forbidden fruit, why was it forbidden, if its eating results in analytical power, ain’t that good, aren’t those with better analytical powers more in demand in our society. Why forbit something, thereby creating temptation !! just thoughts, thoght would share with you all. why did the God almighty not stop them if it was a wrong thing to do. If Adam became like God ( one of Us ! ) then is it wrong to become like God, what is this all about.
Paulo, buddy forget the awareness device if u don’t want to help out on that, but on this will U PLEASE WRITE U’R VIEWS, i am sure we all will appreciate it greatly !! it would be helpful. about the butterfly story, let’s not beleive everything we read, let our hearts decide occassionaly.
aditya
Dear Paulo
the tasting of the Fruit revealed the Way
Union with the Divine was now a Reality
Man’s Journey was to know of the Tree
to Realise
the Tree of Life may guide his Life
the Fruits were pure qualities
existing within - deepening the connection
and may manifest the physical realm
the more he was Silent
the more he would Know
the more he would Become a part of
and enter the Eternal flow
for the Branches may reach out
to embrace all people and all things
I am He as She and I are One
the Time is Now - the Revelation
John
We all have to thank Eve for having tempted Adam and ending the happy but boring and stupid life in paradise!
Aditya,
I like your questions! What is this “fruit?” Why was it forbidden? Isn’t the ability to think, and reason, good?
I like the way you think!
——–
Furthermore, I’d like to point out that The Man and The Woman were naked BEFORE they partook in this “fruit of knowledge.” And they remained naked AFTER.
Before they partook of this particular perception, they were “naked and unashamed.” They were perfectly happy with themselves, saw no reason to “put costumes” on, or anything. They were who they were — they saw themselves as very good, the way they were created.
After they partook of this particular information, they perceived themselves differently. They became “ashamed” of themselves to the point of now having to mask themeselves.
How many masks, costumes, and coverings do people in this world wear, because of the opinions and judgments of others??? From the judgments of your parents, church, school, society, etc…???
Partaking in the idea that “if you are this way, you are good, but if you are that way, you are bad” is what causes so-called “death.” Living outside the Garden of Self Perfection.
It’s all in the head — all in your perceptions of yourself. If you can see yourself as Perfect (as You ARE) then you’d have no reason to be anything than your Glorious Self. If you perceive imperfections within yourself, you will put “makeup” on, trying to “be better.”
Not loving yourself, not seeing yourself as perfect and beautiful — THAT is death.
Finally, I’d like to point out the last book of the Bible is titled The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Revelation means Un-Covering.
So the entire bible, in summary, is about Our journey back to Ourselves, where we can take the “coverings” off and be NAKED AND UNASHAMED, once again, as We are meant to live. Jesus said YOU are the light of the world, and no man lights a candle and puts it under a bushel… In other words, TAKE THE COVERS OFF!!! YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL AND GLORIOUS, JUST AS YOU ARE!!!
Paulo’s book “Veronica Decides to Die” speaks of this understanding, nicely.
Aditya,
Justified questions, but perhaps asked from a perspective looking for a solution to the good old issue of “evil” versus “good”?
There is indeed the jealous God, casting Adam and Eve out of Eden, creating an abyss between paradise and manifested universe.
But then, after the arrival of the Son, there is also the forgiving God, guiding man back to her origin.
Knowing the whole story, one is likely to conclude that both were necessary to evolution; equally holy and equally important to the miracle that we call life.
And there is also a third aspect, not yet accepted by the many.
Dear Paulo,
This is the most fascinating statements of all!!!!
After the second time I’ve read “Demon and Miss Prim” - where I found it - believe it or not but I was so excited about this passage that I was looking everywhere for it - in the bible, on the internet (looking for translation from hebrew)etc. I love these kind of mysteries !!!
Why God said he(the man) became like one of “US” ?????????? knows good and evil.
After long, long, long thinking I came to this conclusion:
either HE/SHE IS BOTH MAN and WOMAN????????
or HE/SHE IS THE TRINITY: GOD and CHRIST and the HOLY SPIRIT????????
also because HE/SHE is ALMIGHTY - HE/SHE can be (if HE/SHE wants to )- both GOOD or EVIL whenever HE/SHE choses to be???????
????????????????????
This is of course just guessing, NOBODY WILL EVER KNOW - NOT IN THIS LIFETIME at least!!!!!???????
- thank YOU PAULO,
LOVE
Agnieszka
Dear Paulo,
I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHAT DO YOU THINK, IF YOU CAN, OF COURSE.
THANK YOU
Agnieszka
Through knowledge and love we can become as God’s, but would you really want to be, who would you blame for the bad, the good and the ugly?
Adam and Eve
if man were to live eternally he would still remain a human being. He wouldn’t develop the power of a god. So how could a man become one of them unless the powers are irrelevant.
man could accumulate knowledge up to his memory capacities, but these capcities would never be sufficient for the knowledge of the universe. So how could a man become one of them unless knowledge is irrelevant, but eternal living is.
To be one of them means to live eternally with the virtue to tell what is good and evil. But would that matter if death had no power?
In Today’s English Version, Genesis 3:22 is actually “Then the Lord God said, ‘Now these human beings have become like one of us and have knowledge of what is good and what is bad. They must not be allowed to take fruit from the tree that gives life, eat it, and live forever.’”
It seems to say that the moment Adam and Eve had a conception of what is good/bad, they were forbidden to take from the life-giving tree. In taking it apart, here are my thoughts of the moment:
1. knowledge of good/bad can exist with the force that gives life
2. those who judge cannot be allowed to live forever
Before this verse it says the Lord God made clothes for Adam and his wife, which I saw as the benevolent, caring and ingenious side of God. (He could have left them be, holding leaves up forever, limiting their movements.)
After the verse it says the Lord sent them out of Eden and made them cultivate the soil from which they had been formed. So it seems that when the stage of bliss is past, work needs to take the lead, and Adam and Eve have to work on that which makes up who they are.
This is how I interpret it. Can you give an alternative interpretation?
sorry i meant to say:
1. knowledge of good/bad CANNOT exist with the force that gives life
Dear Paulo,
One more thought came up to my mind:
As we supposed to be ONE WITH GOD
and because GOD KNEW GOOD and EVIL,
HE/SHE LET THE MAN BE AS GOD(?)
and ALSO KNOW GOOD and EVIL,
if the man choose to do so
maybe(?) - so the man can see the difference
and IN THE END
CHOOSE THE GOOD and come back TO BE ONE AGAIN! ???
love
Agnieszka
What came to mind was Man was given freedom and decision making. Either by God or by disobeying God. From this we are to know what is good and what is evil, but human minds are complicated and many things have gone wrong. We can regain our connection with God if we recognize the fruits which s/he provides us all.
Go to the source.
Think for yourselves.
Question authority.
Each one form the allmight!!This is the knowledge.Many people don’t discover it yet.You open your soul,your life,thoughts,ways,but unfortunately they think that you want promote yourself…Isn’t true,because it’s only your journey,your way…
now i am reading your novel ‘the witch of the portobello’.one desire that arised during reading it,i want to see athena’s photo,if it is there. i searched in internet ,but i could not find anythig.please can you tell me about it?.
I don’t believe in any external God and haven’t read the bible nor the koran nor other religion texts. Interpreting this bible text is difficult…
Assuming God exits:
“the man has become like one of Us”
When God says this, he probably meant Adam (or even all man or even mankind) became a God too.
I don’t think God said this in a sarcastic mood, meaning Adam or man thinks he can become a god by eating the forbidden fruit.
“he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever“
So Adam (or man or mankind) can eat from another tree, this time the tree of life, and live forever. Seems logical when he become a God.
Religious texts shouldn’t be so hard to interpret. Every human being should be able to understand religious texts, interpret the simple and clear values. When you need priests, imam’s or other religous practicers you hand out your life, don’t take your own responsibilities for your actions in line with your values.
When Adam takes the fruit he took responsibility for his action, good for him. The next step is strech out again and grap life.
Talking about values is good for mankind, but doing this in a context for one specific religion only makes us more talking in us and them, seperates us instead of bringing together.
I have chosen to answer the question by examining the assumed consequences of choosing evil over good and vice versa. Once man has eaten the forbidden fruit, it is said, he got to know the difference between good over evil. But the postultion does not stop there. It is said that most of the bad things that are happening in the world are as a result of man’s choice of good over evil. this is a very problematic proposition. But it demonstrates the complexity of the question posed.
Please read on to see the point I am making.
I want to narrate the story I read about the calamitous and tragic events of 11 September 2001, otherwise now known and branded as 9/11. This I must point out is the standard explanation of tragic events by believers in the holy trinity. It takes the form of eschatological warnings and interpretations. The essence of the piece of writing referred to, or my summation of it, is that the world is in a pretty bad state morally, socially, economically, politically and otherwise because human beings have been systematically evicting God from their lives, that is choosing evil over good.
It is a causal explanation of why things are the way they are. Basically it says that 9/11 and other calamities and atrocities that befall the human race wherever we may be in the world, happen primarily because we humans are turning our backs on the Almighty. We are said to be doing so in all our spheres of life: family, moral, ethical, political, educational, social, sexual, economical, in our workplaces, sports, culture, etc.
I have three fundamental problems with this view of the relationship between Human Beings and Almighty God, and these reflect my understanding of the good over evil debate that was strted in the garden of Eden. These problems or challenges are elucidated below.
1. Firstly, my understanding of the scriptures, the Word, the very foundation of the belief in a Christian God, is that God created human beings and gave them a choice to either respect or disrespect him (Genesis, Deuteronomy, Mathew, John, Mark, Luke). Of course each of these choices have a particular set of consequences: eternal life for the former (respecting God) and eternal damnation for the latter (disrespecting God).
It should therefore be hardly surprising to God if we decide to turn our backs on him, by choosing evil over good, the way this piece of writing dramatically captures this scenario. We are, after all, living according to the way he has created us in the first place. We are thus optimally performing according to the manufacture’s specifications, to use a technical metaphor. In terms of the operating manual, the bible, that is, when this wanton disrespect and turning of backs against the manufacturer happens, the next phase of consequences will kick in: eternal damnation. Personally I believe that it will be a gross undermining of the Almighty’s intelligence and Omnipotence to suggest that he is unleashing all these atrocities and unfortunate happenings on the human race because we have disrespected Him. He created us with that capability and spelt out the options and the implications of our choices very clearly for us. He knew, still knows and will always know that some will respect Him and some will not, some will choose good others will choose evil, and that comes with a price. His choice is obviously to redeem and save the damned, but He is not going to do that at all cost. That will undermine completely the logic of the Great Grand Design. [Looked at from another angle, this view of human pain and suffering as a punishment from god, as a result of disobedience cancels out any chance for redemption that is the necessary consequence of repentance. This will be further explained by point no 2 below, when the time implications of the enterprise of divine forgiveness are further explored.]
Taken to its extreme, this view turns into a circular and tautological argument. All these tragic events are unleashed on human beings as a consequence of their disrespect for God, on the one hand. At another level, these events make human beings question the existence of a benevolent god, and in so doing implicitly showing disrespect to god. If you respect him you cannot question his wisdom nor his doings. So we become trapped in this vicious circle of blaming and vindicating the deity, moving from blame to vindication, back to blame, to vindication again…it is a self-feeding religious scheme!
2. Secondly, I understand the Holy Lord to have so much loved the world that He sent his only begotten son to die so that man (humans) can be redeemed from their sins (The Gospel according to St. John. The key question is: How long does it take for this redemption to kick in after one has sinned?
The very occurrence of the death of Christ provides an answer to this question. One of the Sinners who was crucified with Christ repented just before the last breath of his life and yet he was assured of a place in eternal paradise. Christ said to him: “Truly I say to you, tonight you will be with me in my father’s kingdom.” A very careful analysis of this significant happening in the discourse of forgiveness leads one to reach the following conclusion: In the biblical discourse of forgiveness the consequences of sinning, of being disrespectful to god, of turning your back on Him, can never be immediate because that will automatically rule out repentance and the consequent redemption. If this were to happen, it will in essence invalidate the whole purpose of god taking a human form through Christ, and making his only begotten son to die for our sins.
Christ was brought to earth to suffer and die for our sins, according to the scriptures, so that those who repent after sinning, can be redeemed, saved and brought into the perpetual bliss of the eternal kingdom of god. The scriptures are very clear that the final reward and punishment will be effected post the human form of life, that is, after death upon the “second coming” of Christ. It therefore defies the logic (even in the religious sense) of repentance when god now starts unleashing a tapestry of calamities in the form of September 11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Communism, abortions, poverty, acute hunger and starvation, hurricanes, and all other “vengeful” interventions.
It defies the logic indeed if god exercises his right of vengeance on humans before they have had a chance to say “our father we have sinned against you and for this we are truly sorry” and mended their ways. In the well known “daily prayer” Christians (and those who recite from rote learning and empty familiarity bred by unquestioning habit, chronic conformance to imbibed dogma)) often say “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” to underscore the centrality of forgiveness in the Christian faith.
Most significantly, to appreciate the sense of timing in the biblical context, one must understand that seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, months, years take on a whole new meaning. One minute from now and five hundred thousand years from now are virtually the same in the biblical context. In Mathew chapter 25, when explaining the parable of the ten maidens who were waiting for the groom, Christ sums up the essence of the story thus: “Be ready at all times for you do not know the hour nor the day for the son of man to come.” Therefore it does not make sense to argue that humans have had ample time to mend their ways and did not do so before god in his wrath, anger and disappointment unleashed September 11. The Son of Man can return today, tomorrow, next year or even one million years from now. “Be ready for you do not know the hour…” So, the issue of timing or the duration of the sin debt, or the expiration thereof, before final judgement is an inconclusive one.
Man was created with the ability to make decisions and choose his own destiny. The moment Adam chose to eat the forbidden fruit, a veil was lifted from his eyes, and like a child crossing the threshold, he was no longer naïve. He became aware of good and evil. He became a true manifestation of man made in God’s image.
With a new awareness of self, Adam’s destiny was placed in his own hands. He could choose to embrace his knowledge and “take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever,” or he could lament and watch his life pass him by. The knowledge of good and evil made it possible for him to truly experience the joys of life, for now he also knew of the possibility of sorrows.
Genesis 2:9 says that there were different trees, those that are pleasant to the sight and those that are good for food and it specifically says that there was also the tree of knowledge and the tree of life.
In Gen.2: 16 The lord commanded the man saying, that, ” you may eat freely eat of every tree of the garden: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die.”
It is apparent that the Tree of Life had a special place in God’s garden, but with no restrictions on it, for perhaps God assumed that humanity would never need to eat of it, because God designed us to opt for Good and we were to live in obedience to Him and in His presence forever. According to God’s design we were given a free will but God expected that we would always use that will to obey and follow His commands.
However it was the disobedience to God’s command by Adam and Eve which showed they were not satisfied with all that had been freely given to enjoy in the garden of life. They (like all of us) wanted a share of what God had kept for Himself - the ultimate knowledge or total knowledge of all things, good and evil, which the tree of knowledge represented. God did not will it, but he knew that the moment man partook of evil it would take hold of him and he would die and that’s why he had asked them not to eat of this tree.
This eating of the forbidden fruit was the symbolic act and exercise of the free will against God’s command and facing death was the consequence.
I understand that the statement we are discussing is that after the fall of Adam, God has reserved the Tree of Life only for those who would remain obedient to His commands –The words ..And now he might stretch out his hand and take of the tree of life” means that now since Adam and Eve had the knowledge, they may try to outwit death and win back the rights to eternal life by eating of the Tree of life. But God sent the disobedient Adam and Eve out of His paradise to fend for themselves, so that they could know that without a repentant spirit and awareness of what they had done against God, they could not enjoy His presence or come close to the Tree of Life that was being guarded by a Cherubim with a flaming sword,.
Eternal life was not going to be freely available anymore to those who had disobeyed God. Now that Adam and eve had the knowledge of good and evil, they would need to exercise a choice for Good in order to win their rights back again. Almost all the suffering in the world is a direct outcome of disobedience to the commands of God and the free will choices that humanity makes for evil and against God.
Yet as the Bible says, God is Good, slow to anger and abounding in Mercy and so the goodness of God finds place again through His son Jesus and the Tree of Calvary, and reflects in the promises in the last book of the Bible, Revelation Ch.22:1and 2 , where there is a beautiful description of the Tree of life whose branches are a healing for the nations and a promise to those who remain obedient. Verse 14, says “to those who wash their robes “-( who can come clean before God and repent of their sins and of the times they have turned against God) and to those who obey His word, they will again receive their share of the Tree of (eternal) life – a share in Paradise and God’s eternal Presence.
Oh Paulo…..here’s the bible according to Leaf…lol wol
Think circular and we’ll get there ok
God is the high tech space man who placed Adam n Eve in the Eden as promised at the end of the bible (though the promise is different the Garden is the same) He took Adam’s rib and cloned him, yes? He said, If you don’t want to go through numerous world wars famine greed, hatred etc etc then don’t have sex just yet…enjoy your selves by all means but don’t eat the ‘Fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil’ just don’t - I’ll be back.
What did they do?
Yes John, the time is now.
Jesus saw the cycle, he read the scriptures - to live forever is to bring children into the world and teach them OUR values, we become like gods, we, for a part of their lives, have authority over their well being and demand a certain degree of obedience - Jesus said that the son of man would return, as one with the father, riding on white horses from the clouds….and I’m waiting for the space man to come and say to us Adam and Eve’s children ; Told you so.
What’s more - the Dragon at the revelation is the same mythical creature who they used to feed the children of unmarried mothers and troublesome virgins to, to appease ancient Britons - Jesus came to show that unmarried mothers were capable of bringing loving worthy children into the world.
thank you
By the way, everyone else is also valid with comment about morals and metaphorical truths about the forbidden fruit but I believe mine makes sense literally.
xxxx
Paulo,
The problem with good and evil is: it matters on which side of the fence you look at it.
Let me take the Bible’s perspective to answer this.
God had an opponent, a perfect celestial spirit creature who, after he had fallen, started to misguide the entire inhabited earth for his own selfish purpose. He wanted mankind to worship him and would have loved Jesus to do the same as did Eve and Adam. But he had to let Jesus die on his stake for the one and only reason : He could not get him to disobey God. He tried him in the dessert but would not make him eat, or worship him, nor make him desire the kingdoms of the earth.
According to the Bible, man is wicked by birth. He’s selfish and cowardly, the first thing Adam and Eve did, when they discovered that they were naked, they went into hiding.
They knew that they had crossed their limit. They were perfect beings and as such there is no forgiving this act. Eve was able to perfectly repeat to the serpent that is was not true what he said that she was not allowed to eat from the trees in the garden. That was Satan’s marketing trick. She fell for it. Why? Well, because (wo)man also is limited in his/her perception, knowledge, and power. S/he cannot create life from nothing. S/he as a beginning, is finit and will come to an end unless it nourishes his being from the tree of life.
God doesn’ have an end, nor beginning. He just IS, and always WAS, from time indefinite. As humans we cannot comprehend that limitlessness.
Still, eternity or time indefinite, is inherent to humans. It is a desire, it’s put into our hearts by God in our design. That’s why our lives seem so short. Our minds don’t age, and as much as we would love to pretend a Hollywood-inspired ageless beauty, our bodies do.
Some years ago I wrote a poem which was answering that question, or at least to a certain degree.
Adam knew why…let me ask you, does a “good” or let’s say “obedient” man go as far as provoking God? He was after all God’s creation. Willingly, would a good man do something that would disrespect his Creator to the degree that he questions his word, love itself? He had lovingly made a woman just for him, remember (and that I’m sure he appreciated, but for how long?) Not to be cynical but alone that fact should have made Adam realize that perfection and life eternal are a really good deal to get with a perfect woman.
Then that perfect imagine changed. Ever since marketing uses that same trick, the image of a perfect life and how this product or service will make you obtain that condition/state.
Please God, spare my ribs!!!
Well, let’s consider that for a second:
Perfect life still entitled Adam to make ample use of his free will. Did he use it to obey God? He did not. Obedience was the only thing God could not make Adam give him, not because he didn’t have the scare techniques to use but because he is Love. He wants obedience from a free will. When Adam wanted to be like GOD, was that GOOD? Or was that bad? Adam could only find out after the fact, perhaps, as he would then see things from God’s perspective… he knew why he wronged God, and followed the serpent’s lie.
My poem is entitled:
Adam’s spare rib – how blond was Eve?
I post it here and anyone who wants can use it for non-commercial use.
“Glistening sin’s fruit in the shadow of
Eternity where life in paradise was lost, found at stake
Omnipotence that catered for free will.
Rivalry motivated the Serpent’s lie.
GOD allowed for time to let it prove Satan wrong.
EVE was deceived and Adam knew why.”
What is says is, in essence, that God as the life giver had the right to demand obedience.
There wasn’t anything man, as it was his creation, could give him that didn’t already belong to him. God wanted something unique, something that he would not be able to create, since it was a law he gave man for his own discretion, in a perfect mind and body: Obedience.
Would it be bad to obey someone who IS love and provides you with perfect living, body, mind and all the rest (note: he did not impose celibacy on Adam, he wanted him and Eve to become many!!)?
God wanted mankind to obey him, and then let them continue to live in paradise.
He would always take perfectly care of the man and the woman. He would allow them direct communication with him. He even wanted them to become many…so, essentially he took care of every wish they could have possibly had: a perfect earth, in perfect health, and bodies that would regenerate youth and vitality from the tree of life. A perfectly fitting couple, accomplices in an act of disobedience, which as such was not the worst thing to do, were it only affecting them. It affected them and all the decendants with them.
God’s idea for mankind was ruined. But he had a plan B.
He made an arrangement for someone to give back perfection and eternity to mankind by way of giving a perfect life as a sacrifice. Yes, you guessed it: Jesus.
Adam was not fooled, he purposefully went ahead and followed Satan. He wanted more than God had allowed him to have, do and be. It wasn’t enough to have FREE will he wanted to be “just like God”, and as such, wanted power, rulership, and as such missed the mark. Fool he was. He was fed up being the gardener in God’s paradise, he wanted to be boss, take dominion and subdue, which he misconceived, by force.
He went ahead and took possession of what was not his, the fruit being symbolic for the act of disobedience. Obedience was all God ever wanted from him.
That’s all a parent wants from his kids, because a parent knows what’s good or bad for the child.
Generally speaking, it is said that Satan had to go for the younger and naiver lady Eve (coward he is also for not taking it up with someone of his own rank and power, not until he was facing Jesus in the dessert).
She would easily get deceived, and take the fruit off the tree of knowledge of good and bad, and offer it to her husband.
Adam could have refused. He was in direct communication with God, he KNEW that by eating from it he would positively die. Did he care? He wanted to believe a lie. He mistrusted God and wanted to follow Satan who had promised him to BE LIKE GOD.
My question to you: Can a book you wrote be you? No, it remains your creation. Can your child be you? No, it can reflect traits you have, look like you but never BE like you because you have your own mind, heart, and spirit.
There was the tree of life, right there.
It was not forbidden to eat from that. The fallen Angel creation today knows that life eternal is what God promised to everyone who truly seeks to follow Him.
The Creator of the universe has this right to obedience and to Him alone be the glory… Adam thought essentially he could outsmart God, bake the cake and eat it.
Serene, I love your thoughts. I completely agree that Life and the perception/judgment of Good & Evil cannot coexist. Either you live judgment free, or you die OF judgment.
One thing I would add, per your question for another interpretation - as a more contemporary example.
Let’s take Paul’s life story as as example, and maybe we can see the principle at work in our own lives. For Paulo, living from the tree of life (his heart) in the midst of the garden has always meant being a writer, an artist.
His parents — his “Lord God” at the time, judged that as being NO GOOD, or “evil,” but being in a traditional profession (perhaps engineering, like his dad) was judged as “good” or “acceptable.”
I bet if you asked Paulo, he would describe his attempts at living outside of himself (outside the garden) as a hard world of “work” with thorns, thistles, blood and sweat (as later Genesis scriptures speak of).
But I bet if you ask him that when he is HIMSELF, living from his heart, “following his personal legend,” that it’s something of a blissful world. The garden still requires “work” but it’s a different type of work. Because it comes from within your own heart — it’s natural for you — it’s not “toil.”
The bottom line, and I’m convinced of this — living from within, living from the Tree of Life which is your heart — is a heavenly existence. Living EXTERNAL to your authentic self (living as someone else would have you live) is “hell.”
The term “tree of life” reoccurs throughout the Bible several times. It’s a very enlightening topic, and you have to understand, finally, that THERE IS NO GOD out there in the sky somewhere.
The Tree of Life, which produces Eternal Life, is YOUR HEART. If you can live from within, you can live forever.
If you attempt to be who others “coerce” you to be, you are choosing death, hence the results of so many.
We are human having a spiritual experience here, the forbidden fruit is like desire ,temptation and we have all made mistakes ,we have free will and can do as we please, but there are reactions for every action we take..
Some stories in the Bible have a very deep meaning and difficult to interpret. One should have a gift of discernment and wisdom from above to know its the message. Some stories were direct to the point and can be interpreted as it is. Maybe… the cited lines from the Bible: “the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” can be interpreted literally. The message is clear and bare… that man become like them (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost) who now knows the good from evil. And, there’s a tree of life in the garden that whoever eats it could live forever. Hence, the reason of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Paradise. That’s it! Nothing more. Nothing less. Period.
Eve:
The time has come
The Mother is dead
The Bride comes
I hear a voice
Rising from the immemorial past
In the depths of my ground
By the light of the future
It calls me
And has always called me!
The thrilling of my being
Rends the veil of my fear!
The veil of time woven by my clumsiness,
For nothing that has been has not yet been lived
Till now I have born only the non-living
My flesh multiplied in the immensity of the darkness
Has not even begat me.
Make me blaze out, you who are in me
O primordial element of Nature,
Inviolable centre of things
Absolute void of fullness
The substance of essence
Make me go forth, outside,
Towards myself
Because with illimitable desire aflame
I am Hheva
The Bride of all living beings.
Trebol
(http://www.psyche.com/psyche/suares/book_of_eve.html)
I have always thought of Adam and Eve as a parable…to explain people who are starting to read the bible in a simple way how things were created. Creation I believe is beyond our wildest dreams, nonetheless, I think that it is not a matter of who tempted whom or even about choice. If this would have actually happened I think that God is wise enough to know that if he said do not touch, men’s first reaction will be to touch or eat in this case.
Therefore, my question will always be what was it about knowledge that is so terrible.
I truly believe that if Adam and Eve disobeyed to begin with, they already had some knowledge, and as every human being, they just wanted more and more.
Nowadays we are in a quest for more knowledge, and it is precisely that thirst that gives our life a purpose. a continuance… a sense of passing on that knowledge makes us live for ever in every person that shares something that they have learned from us…. And being a teacher that comforts me a lot.
I have the impression that God is seeking revenge once Man tries to go beyond it’s status of “creation” and starts understanding the “creator”.
This revengeful God that is omnipresent in the old testament shows his first streak of pride and resentment in his brutal act against Adam & Eve.
Compassion is a feeling that only comes later… Maybe when the creator manifests itself as the creation.
Lydia,
You are so lovely.
I would question only one thing, however. You said,
“According to the Bible, man is wicked by birth. He’s selfish and cowardly, the first thing Adam and Eve did, when they discovered that they were naked, they went into hiding.”
That’s not true, and quite ironic, because THE IDEA that men are selfish, cowardly and want to go into hiding is THE PROBLEM. Mankind isn’t bad in any way, fundamentally. We’ve just TOLD that we are, hence we’ve hidden our True, Authentic, Beautiful Selves from the world for a very, very long time.
Genesis 1:31 (after The Man was created) says,
“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
Furthermore, Genesis 2:25 says,
“And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
This is the entire premise — the PERCEPTION that you are not good, that you need to cover yourself up — IS DEATH.
Separating yourself from your perfection, your beauty, your limitless life, through the wrong knowledge = DEATH.
They were naked and not ashamed BEFORE they partook of this wrong (judgmental) information, and they were perfectly happy with themselves. After they partook, they became ashamed of themselves, all of a sudden.
ALTHOUGH NOTHING CHANGED ON THE OUTSIDE.
Only their minds changed.
Later, in the New Testament, we see the word “repent.”
Repent means “to change one’s mind.”
So Jesus was merely trying to get people to change their minds, so that they ARE NOT LOW MINDED OF THEMSELVES anymore! He wanted people to see themselves as they really are - perfect and beautiful without reason to cover anything up or be ashamed!!!
The entire Bible is the story of Mankind thinking one of two ways — either that you are the perfect manifestation of God and should SHOW YOURSELF OFF TO THE WORLD or that you are a lowly, error-proned, misguided loser, who must constantly attempt to better yourself through “works and toils of all kinds.”
Nelson Mandela quoted this idea perfectly in one of his speeches when he said, “You do not serve the world by playing small, you are a divine child of God…”
(Sorry, I’m completely paraphrasing that…)
Anyway, I love the Bible in that it is a reflection of Our Beautiful Selves back to us, but on the other hand, it divides us sometimes, when really, all that matters is Love. Doctrines and theologies and knowledge — they’re all powerless without Love.
God is Love. God is Light. And YOU are The Light of the World, so YOU are God and You’re existence is founded in Love!!!
Amen to that Eric. Let love rule!
This discussion is going in a direction I don’t fully comprehend. anyway egerly redaing all inputs !
when eric says that we don’t meed to think of ourselves as lowly, sinful, i understand !
let’s be & live like christ, not necessarily as a vegabond but with the same attitude of cheerfulness, playfulness, helping & love. It’s time we broght Jesus down from that cross, he looks so sad there.
let’s be clear - IDEA THAT MAN IS SINFUL, THAT OH ! LORD SAVE OUR SOULS FOR WE HAVE SINNED, bringing us to such a state of mind is not a religious thought, although all organised religions and more so christianity, precah it. that is because a sin laden conscience becomes easy pray for survival of these ‘reliious intitutions’.
We are all children of God ! and a God which is not jealous, who is love,
love
aditya
Eric Patrick Marr
Dec 11th, 2007 at 12:58 am
..
..
I don’t think a God out there can possibly exist. God is US.
”
Interesting thought ! and ….. true !!
we are composed of say X billion cells, all cells have ‘intelligence’ but do u thing any of those cells can be aware of our existnace. those millions of cells combine togather, make armies, fight battles, so that a ‘higher’ intelligence can reside there and ‘expereince’ ‘all this’.
But Eric now I know why there is going to be a war bewtween Americans and Iranians ! u say God is US, what do u mean; U S ( U S of A that is ) maybe powerful but US is not God !! OK
I agree with Serene, beautiful name and by the way and good tune by Eric Dolphy,:
“In Today’s English Version, Genesis 3:22 is actually “Then the Lord God said, ‘Now these human beings have become like one of us and have knowledge of what is good and what is bad. They must NOT stretch out his hand to take fruit from the tree that gives life, eat it, and live forever.’””
So my interpretation is that God said ok you disobey, you shall now see how difficult the task is to be like one of us, time of innocence is over, and as I warned you you shall die.
Then Jesus said “judge not for fear of being judge in return” then “love your ennemies”.
The only One who can judge is God.
There was a man one century ago that came in France to heal people in the name of his friend Jesus Christ.
And what I learnt from what I’ve read about him was that most of the time he told ill people stop saying bad things about their neighbours, stop trials …
And it worked they were cured unless they continue their gossip and judgements.
In budhism too they pray for their ennemies.
So considering all that I think that the main problem with us is that judgement thing. We’re here on earth to love. But it is more difficult than it seems because we know good from bad.Aren’t we?
Love
Jaromil
Aditya,
I love you so much!!!
Heck no, I don’t mean “US” to be the United States. No way on this green earth do I mean that!!! I meant You and I, all of Humanity — THAT “us.” We ALL have hearts and souls, we ALL have dreams, desires, Personal Legends, tears, pain, happiness and joy. We are ALL the embodiment of Love, of God.
I’m sorry the “U.S.” interpretation was even possible, I know how that might feel and honestly, I’m not fond of the “superiority complex” that some Americans have, not just toward other countries, but heck, toward their own families and neighbors. There definitely is some sense of self-righteousness here, I regretfully admit.
My parents don’t even acknowledge MY authentic self…
And don’t forget, America was laregely built upon slavery, a religious rebellion against Europe, and the white man stealing this land from the Native Americans.
I’m more on YOUR side, than anyone’s, trust me. And most of us hate politics and politicians — most of us don’t even vote because that system is a joke…
Eric Patrick Marr
You can e-mail me EPM@TheAionicCompany.com if you’d like!
I interpret this to mean:
In the time before time, all is one
no good, nor evil, nor color, nor direction can exist-
there is no “you” nor “me”, neither of “us”-
the knowledge of earthly life, and of time comes with the price of oneness, as it implies twoness. Adam and Eve were not cast from eternity: they left through a belief that there was something not one.
Hi Eric !
see how catastrphic few ommissions may become, I forgot to add LOL at the end of my last post, of course i understand u meant the small ‘us’ and not the capital “US”, that agnle was introduced only to add some ‘fun’ to this serious debate. and trust me i too love you and most others ( including paulo ) here. In this virtual world Paulo’s blog can be likened to a ‘virtual monastry’ where all wols are comrades ( this word was the best gift of communism to humanity ) in their pursuit, deaw inspiration & strength from each other as they ‘carry on’. I am awaiting what paulo has to say on this question he has put to us. while all of us seem to have some idea as to what the passage means, Paulo has that unique gift of putting simple words to complex concepts, as u read him u feel “Oh it resonates with my thinking / feeling too “.
regards
aditya
Unconditional Love!
God loves His creations very very much.
That is also why He sent His Son Jesus.
I believe in this unconditional love, it is exist in human being life too, even though it may be rare to find, hard to believe, and its sincerity is questionable or doubtfull.
God doesn`t want His Loved ones to live in eternal life (life means to live in both good and bad (suffer) situation.
God is being protective to human being, but also at the same time He wants to give freedom to us.
In real life, we have a lot of freedom to choose. To choose : what kind of person we want to be, to act good and kind or to act in evil way, to choose to pick a bus or train to get to another city, etc..
Love to all
Liany
from Indonesia
Once Adam ate the forbidden fruit, all innocence was gone. Whether there was really and Adam and Eve is debatable. But, Adam in this story is man. When man loses his innocence, he becomes aware that good and evil exist. This happens to all of us in life. We are naive and trusting in a good world until we discover that there is evil. We even become enticed by this evil, off and on, and further discover that we have free will. We have the choice as to how we participate in life. Adam and Eve were no longer only playmates after partaking of the forbidden fruit. Now, they were aware of the fact that they were man and women. I think that taking from the tree of life represents that they could now procreate. Their offspring would in a way allow them to live forever. But, also their own souls would live forever, much like a God.
That’s my take on it. I really enjoyed reading everyone’s opinions.
Mary (Canada)
About Good and Evil: Devil, Prym
I just read the Devil and Miss Prym, PC’s book bout good and evil and here Coelho asks why God says “Behold! Man has become one like Us” He asks who is the Us (plural) Thought I’d mention that God always cals himself ‘We’ or ‘Us’ it signifies his greatness. In the Koran too, Allah is ‘We’.
By the way, I didn’t much like Devil and Miss Prym. It seems this book was written by Paulo Coelho, while the Zahir and Veronica and Witch and Piedra were written by God through Paulo! In Devil I missed the inspiration that marks the magic of his writing.
It confused my conecpt of good and evil. In Devil, Celho makes clear distinction between good and evil. Good is controlling what may harm others(Vitriol?) while Evil is being controlled by own vices. I don’t clearly understand this. I always thought souls that follow their dreams are good, because they follow God, while those that are bound to matter, (like the people of Viscos) tend to sin in their souls even if they don’t sin in Reality. He who focuses on his dream so intently is obviously free from jealousy, envy, inferiority complex, vanity etc. He is just obeying God and he is nothing but an instrument. That is happiness. This I had learnt from Paulo himself. From his other books. A soul in happiness doesn’t envy others. Envy is the root of all sin. Didn’t the people of Viscos have to realise this instead of their fear that they might not get the gold?
And regarding St Savin and Ahab, is being aroused by a prostitute really a sin? It is the most natural instinct. I just can’t understand Devil. It contradicts everything I learnt from Zahir, Witch and Veronica.
Is ‘making decisions’ regarding good and evil right? I thought freedom is a betraying word(Warrior of Light) the only freedom is in enslavement to God?
Caro Paolo,
Scusami se non ti scrivo in inglese. E’ una lingua difficile per me quando si tratta di scrivere.
Nel leggere il frammento proposto da te mi ero gia’ reso conto che non c’e’ altra risposta plausibile se non questa: la grande maggioranza delle nostre affermazioni su Dio hanno alla base LA NOSTRA ESPERIENZA UMANA. Non voglio dire che e’ necessariamente sbagliato, bensi che, l’umanita’, camminando, ha dovuto fare delle scelte concrete per comprendere meglio Dio.
Forse Dio era invidioso perchè l’uomo aveva accaparrato la conoscenza? Forse Dio aveva paura che l’uomo avrebbe potuto uguagliarLo per ciò che riguarda l’eternita’?
Non penso. Questa potrebbe essere soltanto il nostro modo di immaginare Dio. In realta’ però non e’ che “conosciamo” alla grande cio’ che e’ bene e cio’ che male. Io la penso cosi’: siamo pellegrini e dobbiamo accettare che la verita’ e’ piu’ grande di quanto possiamo noi immaginare. Forse e’ anche una questione di linguaggio… cosi’ come e’ il caso di quel paradosso che da bambini lo sentivamo in giro: può Dio fare una pietra che non può portare (alzare)?
WE are GOD
GOD is US
WE live forever in HIS heart
as HE does in OURS
Mike gets it.
Aditya rocks!
God is infinite in his variety and glory. There are many ways in which we can be like God. In fact, man/woman was made “in the image of God”. This does not mean that we are like God in every way. It is impossible for anything/anyone to be like God in every way, except for God Himself. But we do reflect his glory, each of us reflecting God in a unique way, like the colors of the rainbow, so that each one of us has a crucial role to play in the adventurous story that goes on forever.
We can actually deduce a lot by using reason and what other Scripture passages say. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they became like God in one additional way in which they were not like God previously, “knowing good and evil”. We have to assume that for Adam/Eve “knowing good and evil” means essentially the same thing as God “knowing good and evil”, since by taking on this trait Adam and Eve became “like God”. So, what does it mean that God/Adam/Eve knew good and evil? It must not be referring to the act of disobedience itself, since how could God disobey himself? God knew good and evil without ever doing evil. “God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.” The very definition of evil/sin is that which is against God. But ever since Adam and Eve sinned we have this truth for every human being, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We have lost something. We find do not reflect God’s glory. The mirror has become dirtied. We find we do not fulfill the original intent and crucial role that was meant for us in God’s heart before the foundations of the world.
To “know good and evil” is to be aware of this rift which has been made between God and anything/anyone else. God is One and He cannot be divided, but He can be aware of the division between good and evil. It makes sense that if there is evil, God certainly is aware of it, since evil is what is against God! This is the difference between our knowledge of good and evil and God’s knowledge of good and evil. We are on the other side of the rift. At least this is how it was for Adam and Eve at the moment that God said these words under discussion. And yes this is how it is for all of us, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one, to his own way…” that is, this is how it is for all of us until… “But the Lord has laid on Him (the Messiah), the iniquity of us all.” This is how God brings us back to Him, by bridging the rift Himself, by sending His Son Jesus. This was the only way to bring us True Life, by becoming a human Himself. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” There’s the word “glory” again! In order to rescue us from across the rift, God had to cross the rift Himself by sending His Son. In order to clean the reflecting mirror of His glory, His image, he had to get dirty Himself. Not by sinning (gosh how would that help?) but by taking the rift/death on Himself. His only Son was emptied (kenosis) of his *glory* (!), and God was separated from His Son, so that the separation would no longer have to be between us and God. “He (God) made him who know no sin (Jesus) to become sin for us (on the cross), that we could become the righteousness of God in him.” That is, if we want to be with God, and thus accept God’s love. Across the rift, we say, “God doesn’t love me.” And yes that is what it seems like on the other side of the rift. Love is not just a statement. It needs an action. That is why the news that God did something is called the Gospel, which means Good News. It is the news that God actually did something to love us, so that we can actually respond, take His hand reaching out across the rift.
Yes, by eating of the Tree of Life, Adam and Eve would have become like God in yet one additional way, living forever. Again this does not mean that they would then be fully like God, just as being made in his image or knowing good and evil did not make them fully like God either. What it would have done is this: Adam and Eve would have “lived forever” in the state that they were in at that moment, on the other side of the rift from God, on the other side of the rift between good and evil. So I see God’s keeping them from living forever at that point as an act of mercy. I don’t see this “living forever” as being the same as the True Life, the Life Abundantly that has been Brought To Us through Jesus, “I have come that you may have life, and that you may have life abundantly, life to the full.” How could Adam and Eve have Life Abundantly on the other side of the rift from God? God is the Source/Author of Life. God is Love. He came to us. He is wildly in love with us. He made us! He is bringing us back to Him, growing us, for a life of adventurous infinitely many-faceted glorious love forever, which can be lived in even now.
ha ha ! eric !
u have started the rock scene here ! the whole place is rocking ! i wonder how Paulo is able ro hold himself in writing something here, despite so many requests !! i bet it is one of the ‘policy’ decisions !! sadly all good things start dying as soon as ‘institutions’ take over their upkeep ! ‘institutions’ a necessary evil !! hope Paulo would prove an excption on this one too..
Dear Eric,
Everyone can quote the Bible and it has been quoted in many contexts, which is OK, I won’t insist on being “right” or you being “wrong”. It essentially is just a matter on what fence you’re standing. I have my views, shaped by diligent study of the Bible. What I wrote is, and you can test and research, what is written in this inspired book that man wrote on God’s command.
No, I don’t think MAN = GOD.
You can take the matter up with God who, also according to the Bible, is love but by far not perfected in the individual being. His great love was perfected in that he sent Jesus. He was the only perfect man to live after Adam. Why did he die for us? WHY in the world would a LOVING father send his son to die?
Because Adam, another son, betrayed his trust and ignored his warning about the tree of knowledge of good and bad, and that way lost perfect life. Anyone that would succeed him in his line would have to die.
I respect your views, Eric. At one point, I might have even had similar thoughts. Now since I did “change my mind” according to the teachings of the Bible I made the changes in my life that had to happen. It all made sense to me.
I don’t share your views and still love you, respect you and won’t argue this fact.
Keep searching for God, because he’s merciful and kind. For you to say he doesn’t exist is hurting him, I would suppose, but he is used to hearing it. He never lashes out to anyone, especially not the one who sincerely wants to search for him. He only goes after the wicked and those who have decided to follow him and assist him in his scheming.
I have no intention to convince you of how I see things. It is essentially the way the Bible tells it. Love is only then unconditional when you are able to feel it for all human beings, despite the many stabs and pains they cause you, and only Jesus has perfected this, and God’s love for man was personified in Jesus.
I also do not share the convictions of God and Jesus being a part of a trinity.
Peace, love and light to all.
Lydia
Dear all,
as i spoke about this topic to my friend on the phone, my friend’s 5 years old son suddenly gave his cmment. “If God didn’t send Adam and Eve outside the Eden, there could be three Gods at this moment.”
:-)
Love to all
Liany (Indonesia)
Dear Tom Caylor,
I agree!
I like the way you express it.
Best regards,
Liany
If we look at humankind’s evolution, it has always been about a search for something greater–some knowledge, meaning, and purpose.
At first it was about survival. The earliest human beings did what they did because they had to fight off predators and find ways of beating the odds.
Then, humans learned how to fashion tools for themselves, and science and technology were born. As the centuries passed, we learned more and more to control our environment to make it comfortable for us. Once the prey struggling for survival, we now became the predators–searching for conquest and control. This is what the great wars were all about. Until now, we seem stuck in this “mode” of conquering and controlling.
The tree of knowledge taught us truths that we learned to understand and use. Now we want the tree of life to ultimately control everything and make ourselves masters of the Universe, of creation.
However, this is not our true purpose here. Humankind was made to be STEWARDS of creation, and not its lords or masters. Interpreted in a negative way, we human beings have become so used to control and power that we now are using technology to achieve the impossible: immortality. This is not wrong or bad, per se, but it leads to a way of thinking that is unhealthy–because we are not the Ultimate, our lives are not the Ultimate. We are just threads in the greater fabric of creation.
Looking at this in a positive way, human beings can “take from the tree of life” and use this to make life better for everyone else. Just as we are finding ways to live healthier, grow stronger, and look younger, we are also now realizing the mistakes of our past actions and are trying to somehow reverse the ecological damages brought upon by past generations. We are trying to reduce carbon emissions, we are trying to save endangered species, we are trying to right the wrongs that ignorance has caused our forefathers to do.
So, yes, we once acquired knowledge and learned how to use it. Now we want Life, and it is up to us to decide how this will be done–and, ultimately, what kind of Life we do want to have for humankind as a whole.
Dear Paulo,
What does God mean When he said, “THE MAN HAS BECOME LIKE ONE OF US”? Is there more than one God? Then which of those really created this World?
When the God says “and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” and expels the couple from Eden, and the gate of Eden is sealed by a cherub and a flaming sword “to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Is God being Selfish? Did he intend to make man similar to other animals who dont have the power to think and distinguish between good and bad?
And what such things the Tree of life holds that he expelled them and sealed the gate of eden?
Was God successful in doing so?