by K.D. Augustijn, PhD (The Netherlands)
Christian philosophy is permeated by sin and penitence. All went wrong when Adam and Eve were first disobedient to God in the garden of Eden and mankind has been striving for forgiveness ever since.
However, if one stops to think for one moment (only you're not really allowed to do that, right?) it quickly becomes clear that the entire story is based on a huge paradox!
According to Genesis, Adam and Eve were created by God and placed in the Garden of Eden. They were completely without sin, could live happily ever after and eat anything they liked. Except for one thing: the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If they ever touched that, God warned, they would surely die.
But, alas, the serpent seduces Eve, Eve seduces Adam, they both nibble the fruit (I think the apple has had enough bad press from this instance) and God jumps from behind a bush shouting: Gotcha!
God promptly kicks them out of the Garden and condemns all future generations to grovel in the dirt, have painful labor, kill each other off in awful ways and generally make a terrible mess of the place.
Now, where was the catch?
Simple. God wanted Adam and Eve to make a moral decision (to eat is BAD, not to eat is GOOD), without the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, they had no choice but to eat the fruit, because only after eating the fruit could they realize that eating the fruit (going against God's will or even the threat of dying) was a wrong thing to do!
Thus God created man to screw up in the first place and mankind was condemned for something he had no real choice in.