The Garden of Eden

We read in Genesis that God created the universe in seven days and that God created man from dust, but we know from science that it took billions of years for the formation of the universe, that man evolved from apes, and we are a part of nature. The book of Genesis and the parables of Jesus are timeless because they are interpretations with an underlying principle, the medieval church took the meaning literally, they believed that Earth was the center of the universe and with their geocentric view, caused much damage to science and scientists which set back science by hundreds of years. It took the church 350 years and the grace of Pope John Paul the II to absolve Galileo of any wrongs. Two thousand years back Jesus spoke to us in parables but even today we refer to these parables as they are a guiding force, so what are parables? A parable is a story, a direction, an indication, a parable is not to be taken by its literal meaning, or you will miss the point. If you have ever tried to explain light to a blind man, you will know that it is impossible to do that and that is why we tell this blind man a story, we tell him about sunrise and sunset, day and night, now this blind man will understand that there is something called light and it is beautiful, but he must open his eyes to experience light, similarly, Jesus was telling us about the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of heaven cannot be explained in earthly terms, we now understand that there is a kingdom of heaven and it is beautiful but we must experience it to know what it is. Parables are stories in the language of the blind.   

God created the heavens and the Earth which means the universe had a start point which is the big bang. What was before the big bang we do not know, we just know that the universe started from a point as minute as an atom which exploded to form the universe. God created Earth which is the Garden of Eden and then God created a variety of plants and animals so that every gene and every methylation could be tested for its function. Nature perfected creation in terms of multiplication and adapting to the environment and from this vast pool of nature, God selected the design for humanity. God created man from dust and in his own image, however the image is more than physical, we depict God as an elderly person with a white beard in heaven, but it is more than a physical image that Genesis refers to, Jesus refers to himself as the son of man and to God as his father which means a human form with a divinity.  

The story of the Garden of Eden is beautiful and meaningful. In the Garden of Eden, God laid down rules for Adam and Eve to follow which means there are laws by which the universe works, we are a part of nature, and we must obey these laws of nature for a life of fulfilment and happiness. The devil is our consciousness and scientist Richard Dawkins describes genes as the selfish gene because genes will do anything to survive and multiply. While religion believes that consciousness is a gift from God to differentiate us as a species, scientists believes that consciousness is an ability by which we can visualize, simulate and prepare for danger. The dinosaurs could not survive an asteroid hit, and we may or may not, but we are better prepared than the dinosaurs because of consciousness.

In the Garden of Eden, the devil tempted Adam and Eve with illusions, that they could also be as powerful as God. Illusions are temptations and a misuse of our powers of consciousness. Animals are instinctive and this is required for survival and since we evolved from apes, our body will respond to situations in a similar way as animals, however consciousness allows us to evaluate our responses and, in most cases, it is to say no to these responses which the body has already taken, or in other words we do not react, but we become proactive. When Adam and Eve realized they had been tricked by the devil and had disobeyed God they felt ashamed and covered themselves with leaves to hide from their shame and this is the first sin, the sin of shame that Genesis warns us about. The universe is huge, unimaginably huge and the universe has no center, each one of us we are a center in the universe and make no mistake that when we break the laws of nature, we will realize that the universe is omnipresent, Adam and Eve realized that in their shame, there was nowhere they could hide because the universe is all present and is omniscient or all knowing.   

The second lesson this beautiful story teaches us is about responsibility, when God asked Adam why he ate the fruit from the knowledge tree, Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent, they did not take responsibility for their actions which resulted in the first sin because of which we are all born of sin. To take an example, when a plague struck the Roman Empire, the Catholics were going around and doing what best they could to support the affected people, the people were amazed at the love and compassion these Catholics showed and many converted to Christianity.  You can see here that one act of kindness and one convert means an entire lineage of Christians. The story of Adam and Eve is a story of disobedience, of going against the laws of nature. It is not like we have one life so we can do what we want because every decision we make may affect an entire lineage. Victor Frankl in his book Man's quest for meaning describes responsibility as two words, response and ability, between thought and action is a pause during which time we have the ability to choose our response. To use our consciousness is to be proactive, and by being proactive, we take responsibility for our actions.    

Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes to 24 in apes, it is not that we have one less but that two chromosomes are fused together in humans, we share about 98% DNA with apes, but the similarity ends there. Consciousness is not a physical thing as it cannot be explained through the nuts and bolts of matter and genes and at the same time nature needed the physical tools to create life forms. Life starts with one tiny, microscopic cell with 23 pairs of chromosomes and about twenty-five thousand genes, that’s it, no architect, no boss, no supervisor no nothing, and this cell evolves into a beautiful living being and that is the God design for you.