Why The Christian Myth of The Fall Of Mankind (Original Sin) Is So Appealing

We may debate our different perspectives of the nature of God and how to interpret stories in the Bible, but it is easy to understand the basic story line of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as told by ancient Biblical interpreters. 

        However, it is interesting to note that this early story line is not actually found anywhere in the text of Genesis, word for word, in any literal way. It is a narrative that has been created outside the Bible, by those early Bible interpreters. They applied very specific definitions to selected words and phrases in the Bible, then speculated from there about what it all meant. Here is the generally understood final version of what they decided.

         One way or another we were given a perfect world in which to live, with instructions on how to keep it perfect. When Adam and Eve acted, by deciding for themselves what was good and evil,  the perfect world was lost and they were ejected.  All humans, since then, have been suffering the consequences of that fall. In other words, there seems to be a flaw in basic human nature that is in need of spiritual repair.

Conservative Christians say it their way, that we are all sinners, unworthy of redemption, yet saved by accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. Though I disagree with this theology, there is still much worth considering in such a statement. Yes, we are all, each of us, uncontrollably selfish. We are only pulled out of that selfishness when we accept the reality of a higher understanding or wisdom.

Only when we are able to view the world from a perspective beyond material values can we find ways to live with others that help us fully experience love, compassion, joy, and spiritual growth. It is as if by giving up our most basic human urges, we can reclaim a spiritual position closer to the Garden of Eden; the original  possibilities for a perfect life. We can do this by allowing our human minds to be inspired and guided by God’s mind, which encompasses the totality of truth and power.

Still, the Adam and Eve story is just that, a story, a myth; no more a record of actual events than is the fairy tale, Cinderella. And, it doesn’t have to be.  The story of Cinderella demonstrates that love, patience, obedience, and forgiveness win out in the end and help us achieve more than we can even imagine. We all understand this without having to believe Cinderella was a real person. But the situations and emotions she feels in the story seem real to us because we see events in our own lives, or the lives of others, that resemble her predicaments and successes. Fairy tales and myths help us see a lot about ourselves.

So, you might ask, what is it about human life that makes the Adam and Eve story so appealing? Believe it or not, studies of how the human brain evolved help provide that answer. Humans are unique because of the complex centers and connections we have in our cerebral cortex, the covering over our brain. However, underneath our unique cortex lies remnants of the brain structures of every species from which we evolved. At the very core of our brain there is a cluster of structures collectively called the “limbic system.” The limbic system has one primary purpose and that is to actively promote our physical survival.

Everything we need to do for our bodies and species to survive is monitored by the limbic system. That includes reproduction (sex), finding shelter, food, and protection from what are perceived to be dangerous situations, people, animals, etc. When members of the opposite sex go by, you will check them out, whether you want to or not. The longer you go without eating, drinking water, or going to the bathroom, the more dire those needs become until they are met. If you feel you need to have material possessions to maintain status in your cultural community you will work hard to gather those possessions and try to limit others from being as successful as you. All of these drives come from our deep limbic system urges to survive, by being first, being the best with the most. Sounds shamelessly depraved, doesn’t it?  But, that is our basic human animal nature that has helped us survive as a species.

But we do have a chance for redemption and that chance comes via our complex cerebral cortex. The human cerebral cortex  (the outer covering of our brain) is uniquely designed to support cognition (thinking) and communication (speech). Not only are we self-aware, but also we can think and talk about being self-aware. We have memory and imagination, so we can talk about the past and the future. We can create almost unlimited numbers of concepts and words and use them to describe whatever we would like.  It is almost the total opposite of our limbic system, which is always doggedly focused on promoting and guaranteeing our dominance and survival.

The key to this battle of attitudes is that we humans can use our thinking, or minds to override our hard-wired limbic system impulses. My limbic system may warn me to stay away from an angry dog, but my mind will make me move toward that dog if it is about to harm my child. My limbic system may alert me that I find a teacher handing me a test form sexually attractive, but my mind overrides any reaction to that urge because taking the test is the priority in that situation. We are caught in these kinds of dilemmas essentially every day, all day. We all are and we know it, thus we have a genetic foundation for the idea of original sin.

 This inner battle over our own behavior has been going on since the first Homo sapiens emerged. It creates the human characteristics that make the Adam and Eve story both interesting and understandable. Yes, we have a deep, dark side that is selfish and totally self-serving. I want all of mine and as much of yours as I can get away with.

Then there is our capacity to think and dream and consider others and reason through what our behavior should be towards others. We search for meanings, understandings, and, most of all, a sense of satisfaction, happiness and balance in life. When we let the chatter of our minds go silent during prayer or meditation, the human mind is capable of complete spiritual dominance of limbic system activity. 

Whatever the mind of God is, I have felt touched by it during prayer and meditation.  Prayer and meditation always takes me away from my human self-centeredness and leaves me with an overwhelming feeling of peace, love, and companionship. I sense that I really know very little of all there is to know, yet, everything is okay as long as I stay open to the presence of God.  I am in the right place and in the right time for what I can do.

These are uniquely personal moments, which have formed the foundation of my spiritual beliefs. I do not believe in religious dogma. I do believe in what happens and what is possible, even when I don’t know what that is. I am at peace in God’s hand, that space of ultimate truth.

Jesus taught God first, too, but not because he understood anything about the limbic system. He taught it because it worked and brought his understanding higher than any of his human desires. The stories of Jesus overcoming his temptations in the wilderness are about an inspired human rising above his urges for material superiority and survival. His love of life, God, and his fellow beings was stronger than his fear of physical death. Being true to unconditional love was more important to him than denying it, even to save his life.  What he taught through the peaceful giving of his life still inspires us.

Being open to what science has revealed to the human mind only multiplies my spiritual experiences. I know exactly why my human mind is tempted with “sinful” urges throughout the day and it has nothing to do with the Fall of Mankind mythology. It has everything to do with my evolutionary urge to be supreme and survive on the most basic level as a human animal. But, because I know that, I can consciously override my limbic system and seek spiritual understanding instead. Not only was there no Fall of Mankind, but also, human kind has been growing into even higher levels of spiritual awareness ever since the first word was spoken.

The author of Genesis felt all the same urges I feel, but he did not have benefit of the scientific knowledge available to explain it, as we do. So he just wrote a simple story to create a context for something everyone was aware of, but could not explain. He also decided to describe why snakes crawl, why women suffer in childbirth and why men have to work hard to make a living.  His details may not have been factually correct, but he created an imaginative and compelling narrative. It’s like a friendly first hypothesis that people in his religious community could hold on to until more was learned about how things really work in the world and better explanations presented. The author of Genesis was clearly not writing a history of actual events.

Still, the Fall of Mankind story (Original Sin) in Genesis will always be appealing to humans, because when we honestly assess the source of our most basic sinful urges, somewhere in that search our limbic system will report to our cortex, “Yep, that’s me, it's natural, and I’m just doing my job.”  The mythical Fall of Mankind, therefore, coincides so perfectly with something we always feel inside from our human evolutionary drive to survive, that many will stop thinking at that point and accept The Fall of Mankind myth as the literal Gospel truth, no matter what.

        And, you know, that's OK. While it is true that faith comes from knowledge, it is also true that the extent of knowledge you seek is a decision that you make. Wherever you are in your thinking is exactly where you need to be, until you are prepared to understand more.