It's the "originality" of the Fall that I doubt, it may have been the first to affect mankind, but there was already a disharmony somewhere before that.
- "It is not good for man to be alone" (Gen 2:18). This is said in the context of Adam giving a name (=identity) to the creatures, but not being able to label himself with one. For a reason of something being "not good", there follows the separation of sexes.
- For some reason, something had happened by which the dragon had a tension with God. I say that it was a dragon because only later on this creature would go on its belly. I base this upon Revelation 18 in which this seductive creature is called the dragon. It is so mysterious because so little details are given. Why was this tension there already before the "original" sin? It may have gone out of hand already before man was there, with a superior being over creation that didn't meet God's wishes. Man may have replaced him for that reason. This being was also intelligent. Maybe not of the same grade as humans who have the breath of God in them, but one having gained at least more experience, for what it said was in fact true, but the effects were too much to handle on our own.
In fact, the separation of sexes suggests that man started as androgyn or sexless creature. Man was probably created in a different way, not "just" by a commandment of God like the plants and the animals, but to me it reads more like man, as a bit different from other creatures, was composed from already existing material. That could explain our likeness with chimps (99% DNA match). Not to say that it was technological or surgical, for there are enough examples of God being able to manipulate dead matter into living creatures in a wondrous manner. The character of our spirit (the breath of God in man) is something divine, whatever peels people may build around it in their conditioning. I believe in what is called the divine spark. A piece of God which is driving our life. In accordance with this fundamentality of our soul, we are asked every time in the bible to attune our physical life to the will of God. In the bible I see often that this attunement can be bridging greater gaps than the physical concepts of time or space can.
"Man and woman he created them" may point to an androgyn state of being, and that there were more of them. Even suggesting that there were more people around at the time? That there were more people than Eve & Adam is shown by the story around Cain. Cain is concerned that other people may kill him (Gen 4:13), his son builds a city, and he himself gets married in a land he wanders to. Then the story, like around Abraham or other main characters, only focuses on specific persons while not mentioning the rest anymore. Adam may have still been the leading or most important figure of his time.
It may be hard to imagine Man as he was before the Fall, but judging by some changes happening in Genesis 3 and later on before the Flood, it may have been pretty drastic and over more than one aspect. The Fall was something affecting Man as a species, and the rest of creation as well. And what changed is highly similar to what is later called evolution.
THE CHANGE OF MANKIND
- Greatl increase in of the pain of childbearing: A change causing pain in child bearing is a genetical change. The human species therefore has changed genetically or started to do so as part of the Fall. (Gen 3:16)
- The hierarchy of humans over each other: This is worded in a manner that makes me think of someting with a tension in it, a relation between an authority and a will to please. "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you" (Gen 3:16). This is not only a man-woman relational thing, but something reflecting the hierarchy in the family. Exactly the same thing is said about Cain and Abel (Gen 4:7). Some translations make it refer to sin "it desires to have you, but you have to master it". It makes more sense if it is about Cain not having to bother about his sacrifice not being "seen" by God because he
already has to be content with his position as firstborn son over Abel. It then should read "Abel desires to have you, and you rule over him", which exactly matches Adam being in the head of the family position.
- The loss of an ability to (intelligently) communicate with animals. Animals speaking in the Bible is highly exceptional, and the result of God's intervention. This dragon wasn't speaking God's words and this is why I speculate that there was an ability of man or the dragon or both, to somehow communicate with animals. Perhaps in a spiritual manner. Both man and snake generally lost this ability because of the limitations set by the curse.
- Change in the menu of man. First it was seeds and fruits with seed in it (Gen 1:29) then it was followed by worked grain products and the plants of the field.
- More effort of eating (gen 3:19). This may indicate that man has become more physical than earlier, a fall from a greater spirituality, and therefore having to satisfy a greater physical demand of the body. Combined with less revenue, in all respects the toil has increased.
- Discovering one's nakedness. God provides the clothes, so even before he explicitly speaks out curses, it is something to be dealth with by man, as if it is an automatic or logical result from eating the fruit which already is taking effect. If man was more spiritual before eating the fruit, there may have been the possibility for astral unification. Part of spiritually experiencing people claim they have had experiences of what is called "astral sex", a more intense and intimate experience of intimacy accompanied by a.o. an intense sexual feeling. One of our chakra's is the one of sexual energy, as its signature or frequency pattern or however it is modelled. Sex itself may be a wish for reunification of what was once a whole. Remember that the sexes first had to separate, and that even before, the breath of God came into the matter as the spirit or life of man. There may be very well a remembrance of a unity that got separated, between man and woman as well as between god and man. I don't believe in the argument favouring nymphomany as if "we were created like this". We changed into a more material state. Since then, sex may have got rather limited than expanded, limited to merely the physical aspect of unification and feeling home. For people with a mainly physical or materialistic focus, sex may be their walhalla but for religious people there may be more to one's destiny or happiness. It is like an addiction: it is trusting more on what in fact has become a physical in-between or barrier between really getting close. Why this "shame"? Progressive people may say that there is no problem to sexuality or nakedness, but the ancient people during Adam may have had more clarity about what had actually happened. Sin is always a humiliating state of limitation
and separation. Exposing the shame is a most serious taboo if a lower placed person sees that of a higher placed person. With the example of Noah and Ham.
REST OF CREATION
God mentions that the ground/earthly realm is cursed because of Adam. A ruler could cause sin to come over his subjects by misbehaving or giving the wrong instructions. An example of this is what Moses says to Aaron when he descends after the event with the golden calf. Adam likewise called sin over all that fell under his responsibility, and that was creation itself. I call myself Divinespark when forumming, but in fact I believe that these sparks are connected like a road map, the roads or invisible connections or bonds ultimately coming from God. You get the influences of what you bond with.
- The appearance of thorns and distles. Must be new species. Thorns are defensive mechanisms. These cost energy which in case of harmony in the setting would have been spent otherwise. It may be an explanation for the ground yielding less, necessitating humans to eat the herbs of the field as well, and worked grain products. A defensive poison like nicotin may be in the same category as being related to the Fall. Creation has turned against itself and is spending energy for a vicious circle of violence and competition! Success is increasingly depending on physically detectable success. In human terms this is called materialism. Darwin noticed things he called "struggle for life", "survival of the fittest", things which would be easily judged as materialistic sinful behaviour if it was humans that he observed. Evolution reflects spending energy or trusting in material defenses for the increasing illusion that one IS matter.
- The appearance of predators. First, all the animals ate plants (Gen 1:29). The behaviour of the snake or its relationship towards man (her descendants) is violent. The snake (predators) would strike if man wasn't ahead with his own action. It is an ideal in biblical prophecy that the wolf will lay next to the sheep and eat grass like the sheep. Daniel was able to still the predator instinct of the lions by the might of God. And predators are used as a metaphor to indicate the dominance of government when it is using force. Predators seem to be a pretty undesired phenomenon in fact.
- An extra curse for the snake above all other species. since the snake does not appear more or less smart than animals in our present day, it is a sign that the dragon fell deeply! It lost its legs and perhaps wings, and changed its menu as well. If it is more or less equal to other animals now, if it was extra cursed it fell deeply and this means it was in a high position in earlier times. He would eat dust from then on. Dust is what man is made up of as well so it could signify meat and that the existance of predators was a fact since then.
THE FALL AND TECHNOLOGY
Cain had a curse extra to bear on top of the effects of the Fall. Technological developments are the first to show up with his descendants. They had to, in order to better survive. The blessings were less as a consequence of a heavier curse resting upon him. They had to more rely on matter than on God. The branch of Seth is far less technological for it has a harder time to ever count its blessings, and less of an incitement to search for such development. The Däniken and Sitchin like approaches to divinity or Golden Age as a technologically advanced period of civilization is not the only criterium for a Golden Age preceding a downfall of humanity. It can have been a religious, spiritual or whatever high, and another state of being as well. If there is a resurrection with a New Earth then it might be a restoration of that Golden Age.
THE FALL AND OTHER RELIGIONS
If we are subject to what is mentioned in the Bible, we have been subject or we are descendants of Adam. If we speak a different language than other people, we are descendants of Noah. For the sin that happened to a group, were introduced into a group, were allowed by a group, instigated by its authorities and then to spread through a group, in visible and metaphysical ways. This is how sin works in the Bible. With more than one example of to which groups it spreads and why. There is plenty of circumstantial evidence for a very empty earth in the time of Noah, for civilizations have spread by overpopulation, one group separating from the other and searching for new lands. Those new lands were there back then. Carrying their original culture with them but slightly altering them. During the early times since Noah, the early bible figures met people of the same faith but of another country. Jethro, Melchizedek are examples of this. Later and later on, we see that religions got alienated further and further from each other. The fact that early Germanic cultures have altars reflects an influence, however "witchy" the rest of it may seem. Holy places were common in any old religion. And what witches call the Old Religion, undoubtedly points back to the religion of God the Almighty if only those witches thought any further. The Bible includes "magical thinking" but has a scope far, wise and logical enough to attribute it to God. When sin of the fall therefore is affecting people who never heard of the Bible, it's them who don't know why. We started with one religion, and we will end with one.
THE FALL AND THE KOSHER MENU
- Sex is not kosher, birth is not kosher. It has to do with the sexual differences occurring since the Fall. It remembers of the more limited intimacy (sex) and the greater pains of childbearing (birth). It's strange that on the one hand people stick to the Old Testamentic laws when it's concerning sex, and don't obey it when it concerns pig meat. If they would understand the logic and also accept the fact that Jesus must have been very Jewish in his way of life what's the problem to reunify christianity with Judaism in such a manner that the Law of God would be obeyed again and that we would give theocracy a fair chance?
- No predator occurs in the kosher menu. Anyone who noticed this? It can be easily seen when the bird types are described which are not to be eaten. Pig meat is not kosher to eat as well. Pigs or swine eat dead bodies if they get the chance. Kosherness is not only about hygienics. Even if it has a plausible phyisical explanation, we still have the fact that impure spirits felt more at ease in a herd of swine than in the close presence of Jesus Christ, which has nothing to do with physical hygienics anymore. It has a metaphysical side to it without any doubt. If there will ever be a physical explanation for all the kosher menu, it will only turn out to be a physical parallel to a metaphysical reality.
- The Law of God closely links justice and injustice to kosher and impure. Impurity, sin or curse is a split, divided, tense, hindered situation. Tension affects our health, our luck factor, our trust in something, and most important of all, whether we are spontaneous or not. And that latter thing is what Jesus wanted: to do the Law of God with our heart, and not assuming a superficial mask of hypocrisy. The Law of God has this logic that there are also some advices be "made of one piece": one type of clothing material, one type of animal in front of the plough, not jojo between different wives/husbands back and forth. It's the type of sincere heart that God selects, the ones who trust and not doubt, right or straight equals direct and not twisted, mirrors and riddles. John the Baptist says "bend straight the way of the lord". That is how we manage our life energy which comes from God. The oneness of our mentality. Humbleness is OK when to God, but not to injustice. When David was selected, it was the humility of his position in society and not a lack of bravery and sincerity. Humble people raised is only a sign that it could only have been the hand of God. After they had the oneness of heart already. It does not only apply to Gideon or Saul or David but also to Ruth. It's much about what you do, how you express, what you show from the heart. What Jesus is doing as the greatest difference from the Old Testament, is emphasizing the need for trust, and doing the Law of God from inner motivation.
EVOLUTION
In fact the only issue left to me is how to place all these events in a timeframe, of a type of explanation that could also be plausible to declare the dinosaur bones or other earthly things that indicate time. The big question may be: does the curse include time and space as well if it is of a physical influence? There are still accounts of a Golden Age next to a "Dream Time". The next challenge. So far, I can say that it was God's "clock speed" was running during creation and not that of the sun and the moon. There was already a "light" determining the day and night before the 2 lights which must be the sun and the moon. There is only one thing that requires explanation and that is why there were plants before the 2 lights (fotosynthesis). It could only work if a plant like life form started deeper under the water.
Darwin described his findings in terms that christians would label as sinful or materialistic. Struggle for life, survival of the fittest. In fact, without knowing perhaps, he has exactly described the things which happened as a consequence of the Fall!
The book of revelation talks about the emergence of some strange animal species. Is this to say that evolution will continue up to the end of times? Nowadays we still see evolution happening under our very eyes, micro-organisms and small rodents are mutating during one lifetime already. In fact you see only those who managed to be adapting in a manner which saves their physical interests. God is capable to bring victory to those from which it is least expected in a material sense, but most importantly, the inner qualities. There are some clear examples of quick creation of countless animals over a large area as described about Egypt during the time of Moses, why wouldn't this have happened during creation? It was even quick while our own time measuring was already running! In a matter of one day. Clouds of grasshoppers, waters full of frogs and so on and on. God shows some fenomenal miracles in manipulating matter itself into animals.MAXIMUM AGE OF 120 YEARS
I still assume that the Fall is reflecting evolution because this curse takes longer time to have reached its full effect. The decrease of the ages of bible persons happens from here, and is too gradual to explain from a calendar change. Only by high exception, people turn out to die older than 120 years. Aaron was such a person (123).
The Fall is not the only one, and not the last one of mankind. Somewhere close to the Deluge, the maximum age of humans is limited to 120 years. It is written in the chapter about the announcement of the Flood. Here again, I would have certainly had ideas for different chapter titles than "the announcement of the Flood". At the same time it is a brief overview of a history with very essential and extraordinary events explaining perhaps WHY this Flood happened. However humbling for mankind this passage may be, it gives 1 extra clue for the idea of the divine spark. Genesis 6:3 ""My Spirit will not contend with (or "remain in") man forever, for he is mortal ("corrupt"); his days will be a hundred and twenty years." Apparently it is still God's breath (of life) which is in man. I believe that it's the same as the light in yourself mentioned in the New Testament.
I find the opening of the John gospel mightily impressive! It's highly spiritual in a way pointing to God. About life and a hindrance or the physical focus. About evil I rather have an idea that it's msot of the time just a hindrance, not a very active force unless value is attached to it and it's stimulated. Like a love for evil things. Hindrance can be a stumbling block, a limitation or frustration, hindrance can be shaped in the size of a weapon. The weapon as such may still be not dangerous but the most tricky thing is the love to use it. It's here about the choices we make, if we let Jesus into our hearts and believe in the redemption which we probably are not able to do on our own, from a pretty nasty situation we are in compared to the Golden Age. I tend to believe that the redemption will be there to restore this age of before the Fall.
May the Force be with you!
Greets, Divinespark