And with those words, it went from "very good" to suffering and death... Today, I was reminded of those words in a context that caused me to recall one of the theological arguments for the existence of One God. And it struck as worth discussing...
One of the arguments that there must only be One God, goes something like this: If we look to the polytheistic religions throughout history, we see a great deal of conflict, upheaval, and turmoil. If you have a god of the fire battling a god of earth for supremacy you have constant earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Then the god of water gets involved and there are rampant floods and tsunami. He may team with the god of air and create epic storms to subdue the fire or the earth god, and when the opportunity arises these gods turn on their ally and new chaos ensues.
Equally powerful gods with different strengths, vying for supremacy, for worshipers, for power, results in an extremely chaotic world, not a natural ordered and explainable world that we observe. What we observe in nature fits with the idea of a single God creating an ordered world and not a world with many supernatural gods.
But, when we take a closer look at the world, when we look at the natural world and the things within man's control, and we consider the idea that eating the fruit would make us gods... we see that our buying into that lie has had the expected consequence. Throughout history there is no end to the god-like judgment and decision-making having chaotic consequence on humanity and the world. Certainly, as man to this point we have lacked the ability to wreak the supernatural havoc that the pagan polytheistic gods of ancient history were supposed to have wrought on the Earth. But, looking to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction, we have certainly come close in some ways.
Eating the fruit did not imbue Adam, Eve or us with some great god-like power to bring good into the world. It didn't make us into God, capable of creating and authoring life. No, it just gave us a false sense of being able to judge right from wrong. We came to think we know as much as or maybe even better than God. But, look at the death and destruction we have inflicted on one another through the ages. Look at the precarious state life has existed in on this planet for the last 50 years, as a result of our pride and ego and mistaken belief that we are able to truly recognize right from wrong and to write the rules.
Today, I see abortion as the most frustrating symbol of our mistaken belief. We think we can determine if a baby conceived in the womb deserves to live or not. We fall into the same trap in other areas as well... Are Afghan children's lives worth protecting more than the lives possibly threatened by terrorists taking shelter in their communities? Are the lives of Iraqi's or Iranians worth considering when there is a potential threat to Jews or Europeans?
The absolute most important right is the right to life. If you don't have a right to live, you don't have a right to freedom, because take life away and every other right ceases to exist. If we have any rights, it presupposes that we first have a right to live. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to keep and bear arms, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, right to trial, every other right depends upon the right to life. As soon as you say that any other right or freedom, privacy, pursuit of happiness, liberty, takes precedence over life you destroy any hopes of true freedom.
There is One God above all. And that One God points to us that there is one right above all. Life.
