Why the World Sucks
According to Genesis, the world was perfectly created and all was “good.” There was harmony between God, the earth, and humans because humans were created from the good earth. It may be presumed from this text that humans are God’s favourite creation because it is the only creation which was made in the likeness of the Creator. It is also the only creation on earth which actively demonstrates the ability to choose to follow God. This choice is demonstrated by the trees that God had put in the middle of the garden: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It would seem that God’s only rule was to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which makes sense. The only reason why rules are created is to keep people from doing something “wrong,” but the only wrong thing that the humans, Adam and Eve, could do was choose against God.
One day, Eve was standing near the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and a serpent (which the Bible says is Satan) is there as well. He tricked Eve into thinking that she could be like God if she ate from the fruit of the tree, knowing good and evil. (The ironic thing about this deception, in my opinion, is that Eve was already like God, made bearing his image and only doing what was good.) Eve thought that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil looked tasty and thought it would bring her wisdom, so she took it and ate it. She gave some to Adam, who was with her. It was at this moment that they had “broken the rule.” They had decided to do whatever they thought was best instead of remembering that God knew what was best for them. This is the first sin – the first time that someone went against God’s say-so.
Adam and Eve should have known that God was like their parent, only making that rule to protect them. They felt ashamed of their current state (nakedness) immediately after eating the fruit. They made themselves clothing out of fig leaves and hid themselves when they heard God in the garden. When questioned, Adam and Eve confessed the way many children do when they are caught breaking the rules, “Yeah, I did it, but it’s not my fault! He/she made me!” God responded with a number of curses that many people say are either consequences or punishments, but I say that they are both. (For example, the serpent’s curse involves a punishment in that his tricking Eve would not automatically cause him to be cursed above all animals, and a consequence in the sense that it is only because he had tricked Eve that God needs to have someone come and save humanity from the serpent’s trickery and the sin they’ve fallen into.)
As a result of these curses all harmony and perfectness is broken – this is the reason why bad things happen in the world. The reason for gender inequality is because of the consequence for Eve’s actions: the fact that she will, in sin, want to be above her husband, but God will not allow it. The harmony is also broken between humans and the earth in that, as punishment, the earth would produce thorns and it would be harder for them to cultivate the land. No longer would it simply produce for them. The reason for death in the world is that it is a consequence of sin. God warned the first humans not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or else they would die, and they ate anyway. He says to Adam that they no longer have eternal life and that now, because of their actions, they will return to the dust that they were created from. He also initiates the killing of animals to provide clothing for his creation, showing that he still loves them.
The Enuma Elish, a Babylonian religion, has a different answer for these questions. There was a goddess named Tiamat (meaning “chaos”) who was split into the heavens and the earth. The gods decided to make humans as their slaves and so took the blood of the god Kingu (who was an evil traitor) and the mud of Tiamat and created humans. Therefore, the earth and humans are inherently evil and chaotic because they are made out of evil and chaotic properties. This would be the reason for death, inequality, and evil in the world: People are just like that.
With why the world sucks aside, what I personally find perplexing is why no one seems to ask why good things happen in the world. To those who believed in the Enuma Elish I would ask this question: Why do good things happen in the world? How can anything good come out of people who are so inherently rotten? Perhaps there is an answer to that question that we didn’t go over in class, but as a Christian I’m glad that I have a God who is so perfect and loving that he extends what Paul calls “common grace” unto all of humanity, allowing good things to happen even to those who hate him, and that because of Jesus he extends mercy unto all of his creation should they choose it.
~holly Kwasek
