Adam and Eve, the Serpent a Saint

I am a Christian. I have always wondered about the meaning of the story of Adam and Eve. This is found in the Bible; it is in the book, Genesis. Adam and Eve were God's first children. Adam and Eve were initially entitled to immortality. They could have what they wanted as long as they didn't touch the fruit of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. God left the Garden of Eden. One day, God left the Garden of Eden. The Devil, manifested as a serpent (with legs and arms), entered the garden. The devil tricked Eve into taking a fruit from the garden and giving it to Adam. Adam ate the fruit. God punished Adam and Eve; they could no longer live in abundance and they would eventually die. According to Christianity, Adam and Eve's sin is the original sin that all humans are born with but forgiven for when they are baptized. Because of this Original sin, we are drawn to more sinning. This is called Personal sin. The story of Adam and Eve fascinates me because its motif is open for interpretation. I always wonder what the story actually says about humans God, and what evil is.

One of the noted debates in psychology is the nature vs. nurture debate. It questions whether behaviors are inherited or learned. Learning Psychology is an area of psychology focused on directly observable learning. Learning psychologists focus on nurture; behaviors that are learned.

God is considered perfect. If this is true, how did He/She let sin enter the world? It is possible that he could have prevented it. But he didn't. Of course, the Bible is considered a symbolic story; it is not to be taken literally. However, I think we can analyze the meaning of the Bible by examining literally for its language.

We must look at the Bible more closely. Maybe sin doesn't happen because God isn't perfect, but because we aren't perfect. But this brings us back to the first problem: How could we not be perfect if God created us. Well, it could be that we exist as a fraction of God. God himself is a complete whole, a union; in this He/She could be perfect. Because we are fractions of the union with God, we are inevitably flawed. This would be dictated by things humans could never understand. It

There are schools of thought in psychology. Besides Learning psychology, there is Social Psychology, Positive Psychology, Humanistic Psychology, Psychodynamic Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology and more. The different schools of thought may have a different interpretation of one's behavior. We all behave differently as individuals. But we all behave; we all have that in common.

What if it is not true that we are imperfect fractions of God? Maybe the blood of God runs through our veins. Wouldn't that be a blood of perfection? We must continue to find an explanation for “Adam and Eve.” It could be that we are not perfect because we are distant from God. When God left the garden, Adam and Eve sinned. Distance could be incongruent union with God, which is imperfect. As children of God, even if we sit alongside him, we are not in complete union with him; there is a distance. We live on a physical plane of existence as opposed to a higher plane, which we assume God lives on. Maybe being far from God is being drawn towards sin. But what does it mean for people who do not believe in a God? They would say that they have no distance from God because there is no god to be distant from. Consider that one does not have to believe in God to act ill.

“The soul is meant to live in and through the body and to know itself in the heart of earthly existence” (Griffin 324). One cannot live through their soul when they don't recognize it. “There are many ways we have of standing outside ourselves in ignorance. Those who have learned as children to become strangers to themselves do not find this a difficult task” (338).

According to Maslow, a Humanistic psychologist, we are driven towards self-actualization. Self-actualization is an inner-directed drive of humans to grow, improve, and use their potential to their fullest; they learn ethics, philosophical insights, and artistic expression. Self-Actualization is the last step in the hierarchy of motives. It is the hardest level for one to reach because one must emerge from the lower four levels of need: biological needs, safety needs, love and belongingness needs, and self-esteem needs.

Consider that our interpretation of Genesis presupposes that humans are imperfect? What is a sin? Adam and Eve's Original sin was stealing the fruit of knowledge from the tree, and consuming it. They were consuming knowledge. In this paper, isn't it my goal to create new knowledge? The objective of our course was to learn to create knowledge. Adam and Eve were in pursuit of knowledge; God considered this a sin. God would not want us to commit murder and he did not want Adam and Eve to steal knowledge. Maybe murder and other sins are pursuits of knowledge. A murderer may be in pursuit of knowledge about not life but death.

Paulo Freire speaks of an education that does not allow for construction of knowledge, and one that does allow for it (256). Freire says that banking education restricts learners to receiving, filing, and storing information; banking education is controlled by oppressive forces in society (257-259). Freire anticipates a wider use of problem-posing education. In this, students go beyond memorization to attempt to solve real problems, and create knowledge (257).

Does this mean that God banks us? Are we not to pursue true knowledge? Or maybe the religions that impose the bible on us try to bank us? Isn't sinning such as murdering posing God with problems? Is all problem-posing beneficial? I think we should examine why people choose to pursue knowledge because Adam and Eve seemed to be tempted to pursue knowledge.

Griffin wrote about the Nazis in the holocaust. She speaks about Heinrich Himmler, a distinguished Nazi: “But still he has something of his own. Something hidden. And this will make him powerful. He is a gatherer of secrets” (329).

Stanley Miligram is a noted social psychologist. He conducted an experiment that deceived ordinary citizens. It made them think they were shocking people at fatal voltages, when they in fact weren't. The study just proved the obedience of individuals to authority.

One has to consider that, even if one is in pursuit of knowledge, one should not necessarily steal or murder. Knowledge emerging from what is stolen already exists; it is not created. And a murder victim's knowledge is lost forever for his/her murderer. If a sin is truly an ill action, and God is perfect, then what does the Bible imply about humans and about God? Maybe individuals are easily deceived. And maybe sin comes from an opposing force. Note that the serpent existed in the garden. The serpent represents the devil. Both exist in the Garden of Eden, and are near the tree of knowledge. It could be that God and the Devil co-exist; but people are drawn to the authority of the Devil. This could mean that, though individuals are not bad, they are influence to do ill by a force more powerful than God.

“What we know as goodness is not a static quality but arrives through a series of choices, some imperceptible, which are continually presented to us” (Griffin 340).