Genesis Blog

Is the creation of mankind really all that important, or was something bigger going on we might have missed?

When Eve was "beguiled" by the serpent and she and Adam ate the fruit of the tree their eyes opened and they "knew good and evil." Through lines 16-19 God metes out their individual punishments. Child labor will now be wrought with pain, but Adam will pleasure Eve so that she will desire him and want him. Adam must now work the lands hard for what he is to gain from them. I see the creation of free will in these lines. You don't need to read on and concern yourself with what comes next because we have just witnessed the creation of choice and with choice comes consequence. By casting Adam and Eve from the garden their eyes were less opened than the magic of immortality was erased. Maybe most have looked at this chapter at the wrong angle. Everyone wants to focus on the "inequality" of woman and how she is made from the bone of man. They are most concerned with how we have come onto this Earth, but is that really how we should live our lives? With their expulsion from the garden, Adam and Eve now faced their own mortality and were forced to recognize and accept it just as we as human beings on this Earth should do. To me, the message is clear, I must live my life accepting my own mortality and recognize that I was born with free will. What I do with my life, how I affect change on this Earthly plane, the choices I make for my path in life are all up to me. I have been given the reins to my carriage and where I steer myself can either be my doing or my UNdoing. The only thing I must fully and whole heartedly accept is that the consequences of my choices and actions are mine to bear.



Ask a person what stories they remember from the Bible and I guarantee you a large percentage will notably remember Noah and his Ark. It is remembered as a fun story with animals marching two-by-two so that they can go on to be in the "new world." Few remember the ACTUAL lines of the Bible story and how this gigantic flood came about.

Man multiplied on the Earth and the Lord "saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that ever imagination of the thougts of his heart was only evil continually," and the Lord said "I will blot out the man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them." God goes on to remember Noah and that he had shown he was righteous and worthy of God's love so he warned Noah to make the ark and save tw of each kind of creature - one male, one female. He asks Noah to load him and his family aboard with the animals - they are to become "the second chance."

So WHO is God? Is he the Father, who later creates a con in his image to die for the sins of mankind or is he a punitive, primal, and fiery God who decided he dislikes the poor attitudes of man and thus gives up on them entirely and decided to wipe them off the face of the Earth?  This early stuff points me in the direction of mythology. I see parallels between this fierce God and the almighty Zeus with his lightening bolts. So what are we to do with the Old testament - where do you separate the truth and fiction here? How much do we take literally? If we take it literally then why hasn't the world been destroyed by such a vengeful God? Certainly the sins of man have grown exponentially since the "beginning." We live in a world of corruption and evil, yet we are all still standing.  If you believe in this mythology then tell me who God is. Is he the fiery primal entity saying "obey me or perish" or is he the father of Jesus? We know Jesus lived. There is written record of him. We don't necessarily know that he had migical powers but he did walk the countryside teaching love and forgiveness. Who is God then? Jesus indeed lived on this Earth but was he the son of God? And if he was how can he have been born from a God who would end the lives of all men and women on earth simply because he believed their attitudes to be poor. How could he grow to be a man with the messages he carried, and come from such a vengeful entity?


Grasping further at the parallels between mythology and the Bible I see that Eve is Pandora's Box. She was told not to touch. Not to eat the fruit of the garden because there would be consequences. Well, try telling someone they can't do something and see how long they go without pushing their boundaries and doing the exact thing you swore them away from doing. The mythology behind Pandora's Box is the same thing. Pandora was told not to open the box. Once her curiosity got the better of her, she opened the box. Out flew disease, hate, envy, greed, etc. All the bad, never before experienced by the world. But she couldn't take it back. What was done, was done and the world changed forever. But out of box came one last thing - hope. Hope is what I see in free will. I have a hope that men and women can make good choices for themselves, that they can see the good in the world past all the ugly they face, that they can choose to live for a better tomorrow.