The more freedom a man gains, depending on his ability or inability to handle it, the more alone and helpless he feels.

Escape to freedom

The garden of Eden story before now was not one of my favorite stories, I didn’t care from it (who likes a sad ending?). But I’ve been led to look at it under a different set of lights. Now, for this post to make any sense to you, I would implore you to open your mind and leave your belief at this line for it is said that belief is so often the death of reason.

The story as every christian has been told, starts off with God creating the world and everything we see in it, then he creates man in the form of Adam & Eve to watch over and care for a garden and all of the creatures in it, they even had the privilege of naming the animals. There was only one caveat to this dreamlike existence though,

The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die

All is well and good in the Garden of Eden as God has created it but then he goes ahead and tells man to not eat of a forbidden tree, the one that will give Man the knowledge of Good and Evil. The penalty for eating of that tree seemed a bit too severe, but as those who have read through the story already know, Man did not physically die when he undoubtedly couldn’t keep to God’s command.

The different light I was referring to at the beginning of this post was that of freedom. If you take the story in a different context, a context that is more easily relatable to our existence, you will maybe find something interesting, as I did.

In the story, Man (Adam and Eve) is living in perfect harmony with nature, there’s no need to work, no need to worry, everything is in great prosody, their minds are at ease with all that they see, they need not question anything. The only rule God imposes on them is this “do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil“. Why this didn’t jump out at me before, or why I did not question it is a thought battle for a quieter time between my conscious and subconscious. But moving on, it is clear to see that like all the other animals in the Garden, Man was at one with nature, but unlike all the other animals, only he had the freedom (opportunity, capacity, ability) to choose between advancing, or staying the same.

The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. “For God knows that in the day you eat from it, and

As most of you already know, Man did as Man had to do given his evolutionary heritage. He ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and in that moment, human nature was born, our freedom from nature itself. Instantly, the effects were visible (in the story that is).

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

While that act is seen as the first of a myriad of sins man will come to commit from the standpoint of the church, from the standpoint of man however, this is the beginning of freedom. In that moment, man broke free from nature, in that moment, man saw himself as a separate entity; he saw himself as the self.

The price man had to pay for his freedom was the sudden realization that he was alone, as the story concludes, man was banished from the garden of eden and basically told by God to fend for himself.

23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever “–So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.

To better understand the point I am driving at, this sentence from Eric Fromm’s book Escape From Freedom –from where I picked up this train of thought- puts it neatly

In the myth, the sin in its formal aspect is the eating of the tree of knowledge. The act of disobedience as an act of freedom is the beginning of reason.

I’d like to read your thoughts.