The struggle between good and evil is a challenge of utmost importance for most Christians. They believe that God is good and can’t stand evil/sin. People are evil/sinful. God punishes evil people with hell but gives Christians a way out. Christians spend eternity with God if they have faith that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sins. In the next few minutes I will show that the basic premise is false.
Our story starts at the beginning. Well, almost the beginning. The first chapter of Genesis is the story of the seven day creation. On the sixth day God made land animals including people. “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he create him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.’” However, for Christianity, our story begins in chapter 2.
Most Christians skip straight to Chapter 2 of Genesis - the story of Adam and Eve. It tells the story of creation of the first man and woman. Christians are familiar with the story. Adam and Eve were frolicking in the Garden of Eden, without a care in the world. They talked and walked with God. A serpent persuaded Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, which God had forbidden. Eve persuaded Adam to eat the fruit. They recognized that they were naked. God found out about their disobedience and was so angry that they were sent out from the Garden of Eden. Eating the fruit was the original sin. God can’t stand sin/evil/disobedience so the punishment was exclusion from the Garden of Eden. God then sent his son, Jesus, to suffer on the cross and allow those who accept that suffering to compensate for their own sinful nature and be redeemed to an afterlife in heaven.
In a nutshell, that is the basic story. As you will see, based on more careful reading and thinking, it is nonsense.
The second chapter of Genesis contradicts the first. It doesn’t give a day by day account. For example, in chapter 1, on the third day, “God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’” In the second chapter, “…when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up —for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground—”. A contradiction - water was created first then land (first chapter) or land and then water (second chapter). Another contradiction - people were created on the sixth day in the first chapter “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” In the second chapter, only Adam and Eve were created. God did not see that they were good.
Those distinctions are important. The second chapter leads into the third and the rest of Genesis.
The second chapter supposedly sets up the original sin. God said, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
I admit that I remembered the story as the tree of knowledge. It wasn’t until I became more enlightened, that I went back and noticed these discrepancies to my memory. The tree did not produce fruit of knowledge of everything. It was the knowledge of good and evil. Now notice what happened after eating the fruit.
Chapter 3 gives us the account of disobedience. Eve followed the serpent’s direction and ate the fruit first then talked Adam into it. “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.”
Think about that. It is important. They learned the knowledge of good and evil. Then realized that they were naked. Presumably, they chose what they believed to be good and covered up. Was that knowledge good by God’s standards? No! They walked with God with no clothes before gaining the knowledge. The knowledge was false! So, if we are to believe the story, we must admit that our judgments of good and evil are false.
Now we’re getting somewhere.
God then punished Adam and Eve for their disobedience. “To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.’”
Nothing says that the curses will carry forward to offspring.
Now we get to the real reason Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden. It wasn’t punishment for disobedience. It wasn’t because God can’t stand evil. It was grace. “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever’ — therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.”
A couple more inconsistencies. Adam was told that he would die if he ate the fruit. Doesn’t look like he did. If he already had eternal life, why was there a tree of life? Why is death important?
A popular thought is that we are born as blank slates. We learn as we grow and develop. I call learning neural programming. We learn about good and evil. We learn to make judgements. Many of the things I have learned have proven to be false. Most people never question their beliefs. The only way they lose false beliefs is to take them to the grave.
I read somewhere that science progresses one death at a time. It is common for scientists to cling to what they have learned. PhDs create a career out of their research. It is difficult to admit that someone else has found a better way.
From that viewpoint, death is grace. To have false beliefs forever would be hell.
Now, one more point. Some Christians believe that due to that original sin, God cannot communicate with humans except through redemption through the crucifixion. However, the fourth chapter of Genesis is the story of Cain and Able. God walked and spoke with them even though they weren’t in the garden. In fact, the Old Testament is full of stories of God working with people.
Jesus taught us to pray by starting with “Our father”. He taught a personal connection. He taught us to pray in private.
There is a value in good and evil. Think in terms of love and hate. Love attracts and hate repels. You get more of what you appreciate or focus on. Focus and have faith in good. Attract more good into your life. You will be happier and healthier right now while you are alive.