FOR A NEW INTERPRETATION OF THE MYTH OF ADAM AND EVE: THE EXISTENTIAL MIRROR

Why must the dogma of original sin be put down ?

This article, whose style is voluntarily « special » – I place myself from the point of view of a believer – advocates a new interpretation of the myth of Adam and Eve, inspired both by the work of Claude Tresmontant and the one of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Whether one is a believer or not, when interpreted in this particular way, this biblical myth could be seen as both truly inspired and as a very happy event.

Unfortunately, many doctors, and in particular Saint-Augustin and Jean Calvin saw in it only the prototype of a fault.

Tirelessly, often neurotic men, obsessed with what they considered to be vices, never ceased to comment on the disobedience and rebellion of man in the face of his creator.

These men did not understand that the process of unfolding consciousness upon itself had not made human being a criminal, but a potentially criminal creature.

These men did not understand that this extraordinary change of state in no way tainted the nascent humanity.

Certainly, the disobedience of Adam and Eve would prefigure the future resistance of a part of humanity to Yahweh’s plan, but the awareness of his nudity by the mythical ancestor meant much more.

Unfortunately, men suffering from a real obsessional neurosis obscured the fundamental meaning of this fabulous story.

And instead of celebrating the gift of the existential mirror, they only stigmatized the disobedience of the original couple.

In reality, these men were haunted by their own guilt and, in order to offload it cheaply, they did not fail to project it onto all of humanity. It was then that they produced the truly harmful and misleading idea of a humanity stained by original sin.

For John Calvin, “original sin is a hereditary corruption and perversity of our nature which, being spread over all parts of the soul, makes us guilty”. The latter would go so far as to exclaim in front of each newborn, “Go back, snake! »

As for Saint-Augustin, he was obsessed with his propensity to soil his bed in the morning after having had erotic dreams.

Ignoring the word of Ezekiel, that, « The son will not bear the consequences of his father’s trespass, and the father will not bear the consequences of his son’s trespass. » (Ezekiel 18:20), these men tormented by guilt went so far as to make these little beings pay for the fault of the mythical couple, thus contravening the principle according to which the son would not bear the fault of the father.

Sincerely, these people obsessed with original sin have gone astray. Because instead of determining to treat their invasive neuroses, they worked to build dogmas supporting their erroneous representations.

In reality, there was a time when a tremendous change of state came to occur. Since, as soon had Adam and Eve consumed the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they became aware of their nakedness.

“The woman says to herself: the fruits of this tree are beautiful, they must be good. They make you want to eat them to know more things. She takes a fruit from this tree and eats it. She gives it to her husband who is with her, and he eats it too. Then their eyes open. Now they see that they are naked. (Genesis 3,6-7.)

Overwhelmed by shame, these eponymous ancestors then tried to hide, fleeing the image reflected by the fabulous mirror offered by Yahweh, seeking to hide their animal ancestry.

According to Claude Tresmontant, from all eternity, God, Allah, Yahweh, regardless of the name attributed to him, was aware that matter, DNA, would not remain the only receptacle for the creative information delivered by him and that the living beings would one day cease to be governed solely by genes and instincts.

From all eternity, he decided to give his creature the freedom to act.

From all eternity, he was aware that by giving his creature access to reflective consciousness, he should now address human intelligence.

From all eternity, he was aware that his creature, once endowed with the existential mirror, could refuse to cooperate with him.

From all eternity, he was aware that this was the price to pay for his creature to enjoy freedom.

From immemorial times he was aware that the instruction given by inspired prophets would sometimes be looked down upon.

From all eternity, he was aware that man would be tempted to project his bad thoughts on his brothers.

Eventually, should human being not become aware of the extraordinary power of the existential mirror with which God has endowed him, of this Grail capable of leading the human being towards spiritual completion ?

At a time when neurosciences have made considerable progress, when reflective consciousness is one of the research subjects on which researchers are working the most, at a time when some are still looking for a criterion capable of distinguishing humanity from animality, the adoption of this interpretation seems appropriate to me.

According to the author, this Grail is self-knowledge, in particular that of the functioning of the human intellect, and the progressive appropriation by human beings of their cognitive apparatus that should be made possible thanks to the accumulation and exploitation of scientific data, including neuroscience, psychology, cognitive linguistics.

Everyone should also strive to use the existential mirror (reflective consciousness) to identify their own cognitive and affective biases…

Original sin is just, in my opinion, a dogma that should not exist. It does not exist among the Jews. He is the product of tormented minds.

Could a bad tree bear good fruit? Luke answers this question in the negative (6-43).

Finally, let us remember that this dogma induces a very negative representation of women, a representation from which they have suffered for centuries.

In conclusion, the Church will do very well to definitively disqualifying this invention, this concept of original sin, whose main interest, purely theological, is ultimately to provide an artificial justification for baptism.