There has been a discussion about the historicity of the Adam and Eve story in Genesis 2-3. While I think that there is a case to be made for its occurrence in real life, I don't think we should fail to see that Adam's story is our story as well. Every part of the story is a part of our lives, our experience:
Adam and the woman are all of humanity, including each individual.
Humanity is granted authority/responsibility over the created earth. But he is told not to make ethical decisions on his own (the tree of knowledge of good and evil), but to rely on his relationship with God.
Satan (the serpent, the power that judges humanity) convinces humanity to take authority on their own, because if they were to make their own ethical decisions, apart from God, then they would be all-powerful.
Humanity makes the decision to separate their idea of good and evil from God's. God abides by their decision and determines to separate himself from humanity. Humanity is now devoid of God's wisdom and must depend on their own wisdom.
However, humanity is also devoid of life. Because humanity is like a toddler with the power of a king, God doesn't allow humanity the opportunity for eternal life (the tree of life)-- humanity would just be too dangerous. Instead, God puts humanity under the power of Death who limits humanity through suffering and hardship and who shortens humanity's lifespan.
That's how I see it. Again, I don't have a problem with a historical read of the story, but we need to recognize ourselves in this story as well.
First posted on the Aletheia Forum:http://aletheia.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=science&thread=3350&page=2#ixzz1QOh5M0Io
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