The Big Bang! – Chron.com

In The Beginning. . . .most people, regardless of religion, are familiar with Adam, Eve, and the ancient creation story. If one takes the time to actually read the account (word-by-word) there is considerable confusion in trying to put the pieces together. One such example is the famous seduction of Eve by the beguiling serpent.

God tells Adam and Eve, You may eat from any tree in the garden but do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you shall die. (Gen. 2:17) What follows is the serpents successful effort to convince Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. The serpent says to her, You will certainly not die for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. (Gen. 3: 4-5) Eve eats from the tree of Knowledge, even shares an apple with Adam, yet neither die. The serpent was right! In the end, Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden. One may simply understand this account to mean Do Not Disobey God! However, Reza Aslan, author and scholar of religions, comments . . .it seems to me that Adam and Eve were punished not for disobeying God, but for trying to become God!

Noted astrophysicist and author, Carl Sagan wrote, At the beginning of the universe there were no galaxies, stars, or planets, no life or civilizations, merely a uniform radiant fireball filling all space. In a more religious context, the radiant fireball is God! Every part of the universe (galaxies, stars, or planets) is intimately connected to the fireball; to God.

Pantheism is a belief that God and the universe are one and the same. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, they became-like the stars, planets, trees, and mountains-a part of Theeternal life force. They became a part of God. As such, God was unable to destroy them, so instead banished them from the perfection of Eden.

Aslan writes, Think of God as a light that passes through a prism, refracting into countless colors. The individual colors seem different from one another but, in reality, they are the same. They have the same essence. They have the same source. In this way, what seems on the surface to be separate and distinct is in fact a single reality, and that reality is what we call God.

One may view the banishment of Adam and Eve as punishment or a natural progression necessary to one day expand the borders of Eden to include an entire world.

Rabbi Howard Siegel

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The Big Bang! - Chron.com