Did God Create His Own Nemeses

Has good and evil always co-existed since the beginning of man, just like super heroes have super villains as their nemeses? And if man knows what is good or bad, is man then like god? Hebrew scriptures give us a succinct picture of a moral God who defines the limits of man’s existence. This God first gives man the keys to his kingdom and then dangles a ‘carrot’ in his face and says to him, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Clearly, the temptation was just too good to pass up. Living like a king was never going to be enough if you can be your own ultimate ruler. The story gets even better as there was a serpent more craftier than any of the other wild animals, meaning there were other crafty wild animals living with man. This serpent was able to convince the woman to eat of the forbidden tree, which begs the question who created this crafty serpent?

If you skip to the end you find man is banished from the garden of Eden and is never allowed to eat from the tree of life because he has now become like God. So, can we be like God? And can man be blamed for his own downfall, if he never had a fighting chance? I’m talking about going against a supreme being who has the power to orchestrate the existence of an entire universe. He is like a father who left the keys to his Ferrari on the table and told his teenage son he can only drive the ‘beat up’ Honda civic. Forgetting his teenage son has a ‘hot’ girlfriend who wants to be impressed. Throw in a jealous ‘ex’ boyfriend and tell me what else do you expect. The father comes back to find his son has crushed his precious Ferrari and instead of checking to see if his son is okay, he kicks him out of the house with only the Honda civic to drive the rest of his life. 

This is not the whole story though. 

There is a lesson to be learned. Whoever owns the keys to your heart ultimately reigns over you.

I am just like any man, I give my heart to what is more compelling at a particular time. Without having any illusions to what is real or not, I think we owe it to ourselves to ask questions pertaining to our existence. There is a world out there we have not yet explored that isn’t dictated by time and if we live our lives now like there is no time left, we will find the pursuit of all things good much more life giving than sacrificing each day for what ultimately leads to death.