Adam and Eve: Lessons from the Garden of Eden.

For a while now, I've been reading a lot about the narrative of Adam and Eve. I have some interesting ideas on it. I'd like to share them.

Adam and Eve were explicitly forbidden from accessing the Tree of Good and Evil. By eating from it, they disobeyed God's clear commandment. As a result of their actions, God banished them from the Garden of Eden and left them to fend for themselves.

In no particular order, here are a few of the incredibly insightful conclusions I came to from the story.

1. Women make men self-conscious.

Prior to eating the fruit, Adam was ignorant of what it meant to be naked. He felt comfortable in his skin. As the Bible puts it "Now the man was naked and he felt no shame". Adam became conscious of himself as a direct result of Eve persuading him to eat the fruit. He became so conscious of his appearance before God that, when God called for him, he hid himself because he believed himself to be naked.

2. Veganism over Carnism.

God originally intended for man to consume fruits that would last him for all of eternity. Nowhere in the creation narrative does God explicitly instruct man to consume the creatures he created. In essence, God favored a vegan lifestyle for man. Again, as a direct result of man disobeying God's instruction; he had to learn how to slaughter, skin, and cook an animal such that it could replace God's initial food design.

3. Animals not Women were the original helpers for Man.

Following the creation of man, God recognized his need for a helper and set out to provide him with one. He offered him a wide variety of animals to choose from, but none seemed adequate. God therefore decided that it would be preferable to make a human being in Adam's image. He put Adam into a coma-like state and then made Eve out of his rib.

4. Ignorance is bliss.

Adam and Eve would not have sinned and, more crucially, would not have been expelled from the Garden if they had chosen to remain ignorant of the existence of the "Tree of Good and Evil. Sometimes, desiring to gratify our intrinsic curiosity could come at a costly and irreversible price.

5. Freewill is Inherent in everyone. It is God's gift to all.

God endowed Adam with the freedom to fulfill his duties independently from the moment of his creation. He granted him the freedom to name creatures as he pleased, the freedom to name his partner "Eve," and the option to eat or not to eat from the "Tree of Good and Evil" Adam would have been a mindless automaton, executing all of God's commandments, if he didn't possess freewill.

6. The story of Adam and Eve is the historical development of Human Consciousness.

Given that the Bible is the primary source for all human interactions, it stands to reason that the story of Adam and Eve marks the beginning of all human consciousness. Before eating the fruit, man had no concept of "good" or "evil," nor could he discriminate between "right and wrong." However, after eating the fruit, man underwent a change that allowed him to first realize that he was naked and that he had sinned against God.

7. Shame is the price of knowledge.

The initial action Adam and Eve take after becoming self-conscious is to conceal and clothe themselves. To me that is the vivid depiction of the emergence of culture as an intersection between the fundamental vulnerability & nakedness of the human form and the depredation of nature.

8. Consciousness comes at High Cost.

Everything changed when Adam became aware of his nakedness. He became aware of his vulnerability and mortality. The cost of gaining consciousness meant that he had to rearrange the way he construed himself, so that he could protect himself and his better half against an unfortunate outcome.

9. The Bible is the pre-condition for the manifestation of truth.

God condemned Adam with scrounging for a living, Eve with painful childbirth, an unbreakable bond with her children, an endless need for attention from men, and a pathological desire to control her partner. The snake with deep-seated hatred from people. These truths remain true till this day.

10. The original fall of man is not the eating of the apple.

The original fall of man, in my opinion, was not eating the forbidden fruit; rather, it was Adam accusing Eve of causing his self-conscious misery. True, Eve gave him the fruit, but he had the option to reject it, which he chose not to. When God, who had given him control over everything in the Garden of Eden, including Eve, questioned him about his actions, he laid the blame at Eve's feet.

Overall, there are a ton of lessons that can be drawn from the account of Adam and Eve. It's a fascinating read. It puts the biological, psychological, and cultural evolution of man into perspective. Anyone interested in learning about human history should definitely read it.

PS: The above interpretations of the Adam and Eve narrative are mine. They do not represent universal truths.