There are a lot of ways of reading the story of the Fall. It does seem like a setup, right? “Here’s Paradise. Here’s the one thing you’re not allowed to do, and I’m going to put it right smack in the middle of Paradise where you can see it all the time, and I’m not going to explain why you’re not allowed to do it.”
So many Christians (and Jews) don't read this as a literal account, partially because any story where God is the bad guy needs a grain of salt, and partially because the epic battle of The Almighty God vs. John T. Scopes isn't all that troublesome outside of the Bible Belt. The Descent of Man and the Fall of humanity can coexist in most Christian traditions. (Something most Christians do is read heavily into verse 3:15, folding it into the Prophets and the New Testament to interpret victory over the serpent as the advent of a savior and, finally, victory over the Fall.) But regardless of whether they read the story literally and which other Scripture and traditions the readers bring along with them, most people also read the story as being about big, eternal problems that humanity is mired in. Problems like:
- We die. What’s up with that?
- Sometimes people do terrible things and I want to know who to pin the blame on, but the closer I look the more complicated it gets. I don’t like that. Can you tell me a story that pins the blame on women? I’d feel better if I could pin the blame for everything on all women for all of time. [Theologian’s note: You’re reading the story wrong, you jerk.]
- We do the very last thing we ought to do. Like, we seem compelled, as a species, to just up and do the worst possible thing in any given situation. What’s up with that?
- We work so hard and still barely have enough to get by. What’s up with that?
- Romantic relationships. We feel incomplete without each other, so we hook up and then just destroy each other. What’s up with that?
- God seems so far away. Is that true? Why?
