Genesis

            In the first chapter of Genesis, entitled “The Creation,” God creates Heaven and Death from empty space. Unto Earth, He bestows light and darkness; He creates the land sea; He creates the Sun to light the cycles of day and the moon to light the cycle of night so that hey may be used “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years,"; He brings life to this new world by creating vegetation and animals to inhabit both the land and sea; and, finally, he creates Man in his own image. According to God, Man will have dominion over all the earth and every creature that inhabits it. The second chapter of Genesis, “Man in the Garden of Eden,” details the process through which God creates Man and his counterpart, Woman. God forms Man from the dust of the earth, and into him, God breaths “the breath of life.” God calls this man Adam, and for him God plants a garden eastward in Eden, where Adam shall live happily and free from pain and suffering. Though Adam is surrounded by a garden full of other living creatures, he is--nonetheless--lonely. As a remedy, God forms Woman from Adam’s rib, so that she may be his companion for all eternity. Adam calls this woman Eve. While God fives Adam and Eve the Garden of Eden so that they may live in it and use it without restraint, he does have one requirement that they must obey, or they will be cast from the garden without any hope of ever returning. His rule is this: Adam and Eve must never eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Finally, the third chapter of Genesis, “Man’s Disobedience,” concerns the tragic events that follow once Adam and Eve learn of the nature of Good and Evil, thereby losing their innocence and moral goodness (virtues which God had instilled in them from the very beginning of their creation). The events preceding Adam and Eve’s fall from grace begin with a conversation between Eve and a serpent, who taunts Eve into eating the Forbidden Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. The serpent claims that once Eve eats from the tree, her “eyes shall be opened, and [she] shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Tempted by the serpent’s grandiose claims, Eve eats from the tree and persuades Adam into eating from it as well. Immediately, they gain wisdom, realizing that they are naked. As they clothe themselves, they hear God speaking to them. He admonishes them both for their disobedience and insolence, cursing Eve with the excruciating pains of childbirth and condemning them and their descendants to short lives marked by suffering and conflict. As a final punishment, God banishes them from the Garden of Eden, never to return.

            To be honest, I would not consider myself to be a devout Christian, now would I consider myself to be religious in any way whatsoever. Although I was born into and raised by diligent Catholic family, I have never been particularly interested in the prospects of religion, concerning both the stories that are related and the lessons/morals taught by such stories. The Bible, in my opinion, is not to be analyzed in a literal sense; rather, the purpose of the Bible is to provide a lifestyle by which everyone should aspire to emulate, a moral guideline that, ideally, everyone should try to follow. It is not meant to be interpreted literally. It is meant to be interpreted for its metaphorical meanings, according to the themes that it attempts to convey. Nevertheless, though my origins do not consist of deeply held religious teachings, I can connect to the origins of Adam and Eve in the story of Genesis in that, like Adam and Eve, I believe that I lost most of my innocence once I gained wisdom and knowledge of the laws and way by which the universe and its inhabitants operate. Thus, like Adam and Eve, I feel as though I have been banished from my own metaphorical Garden of Eden. It is as though the happiness and freedom I felt when I still possessed my innocence are lost to men forever, just as Adam and Eve lost the Garden of Eden forever.