PROLOGUE
Biologically, human beings are living beings belonging to the superfamily Hominoidea.
Biblically, human beings are godlike beings expelled from Paradise.
Our godlikeness does not stem from the creation of the first human being. Our godlikeness stems from the forbidden fruit in Paradise.
Adam and Eve
According to the second and oldest biblical story of creation (Genesis 2:4b–3:24), Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise because they ate from the tree to categorize good and evil.
The tree to categorize good and evil gave Adam and Eve the ability to categorize something as something good or something not good.
- Before Adam and Eve ate from the tree to categorize good and evil, they could categorize something as something good or something not good for something, but they could not categorize something as something good or something not good in and of itself.
- After Adam and Eve ate from the tree to categorize good and evil, they could also categorize something as something good or something not good in and of itself.
The ability to categorize something as something good or something not good transformed Adam and Eve from mere living beings into godlike beings.
Godlike beings are also living beings.
As godlike beings, Adam and Eve categorized nakedness as something not good. Therefore, they sewed together fig-tree leaves.
When Adam and Eve categorized nakedness as something not good, nakedness was, in their categorization, something not good. Regardless of how nakedness was categorized before.
To be a godlike being is to have the ability to categorize something as something good or something not good.
Genesis 2:4b—3:24 is undoubtedly a myth, but Genesis 2:4b—3:24 is a myth with a message.
The message is: Human beings are godlike beings expelled from Paradise.
The story of Adam and Eve is a myth about how sin came into the world. What would Adam say or do if Eve walked around naked, or what would Eve say or do if Adam walked around naked? Human beings are born into a world where human beings have categorized everything as either something good or something not good. If you do something not good, you sin against a categorization; if you say that something not good is something good, or that something good is something not good, you sin against a categorization. Human beings are born into a world of sin.
The human race descends from Eve, and all human beings inherit from Eve the ability to categorize something as something good or something not good.
Free will
The ability to categorize something as something good or something not good is free will.
Human beings are born with free will.
With free will, everyone decides for themselves whether something is something good or something not good.
Immanuel Kant writes:
"From this depiction [Genesis 2:4b–3:24] of the first human history, it follows that the exit of the human being from that Paradise, which reason presents to the human being as the first abode of the human race, was nothing other than the transition from the brutality of a pure animal creature to humanity, from the guidance of instincts to the guidance of reason, in other words, the transition from the guardianship of nature to the condition of freedom." (AA VIII:115)
War
Free will leads to war.
In the English version of De Cive, Thomas Hobbes writes:
"There are two kinds of cities: the one natural, such as is the paternal and despotical; the other institutive, which may be also called political. In the first, the lord acquires to himself such citizens as he will; in the other, the citizens by their own wills appoint a lord over themselves". (V.XII)
In a later famous quote, Kant writes:
"The human being is an animal, which, when it lives among other human beings, needs a lord. For it certainly abuses its freedom toward others of its kind; and although it, as a rational creature, wishes a law that sets limits to the freedom of all, yet it is tempted at every opportunity by its selfish animal inclination to exempt itself. Thus, it needs a lord who breaks its own will and compels it to obey a universally valid will whereby everyone can be free." (AA VIII:23)
If we all simply follow our own will, there will be war. Therefore, we need a way to peace.
Both Thomas Hobbes and Immanuel Kant saw a way to peace, but they both missed "THE WAY OF PEACE".
- Hobbes saw a way to peace through punishment and reward.
- Kant saw a way to peace through practical reason.
Our way to peace is not through punishment and reward. Our way to peace is not through practical reason. Our way to peace is through what Jesus Christ did for us.
THE WAY OF PEACE
We know Paradise from the Bible. The Bible is the revelation of THE WAY OF PEACE from Paradise to Paradise.
Paradise is also known as the Kingdom of God.
Paradise is the House of God in the Garden of God; the House of God in the Garden of God is peace: Paradise is peace.
The Way from Paradise to Paradise is from the Garden of God to the House of God.
On the same day he rose from the dead, Jesus Christ gave the Holy Spirit to us.
The Holy Spirit is our ticket to the House of God. The Holy Spirit is our ticket from outside Paradise to inside Paradise.
In a lecture from 1775/1776, Kant says:
"The motive to act in accordance with good principles could well be the idea that, if all would act so, then this earth would be a Paradise. This motivates me to contribute something to this, and if it does not happen, then it is at least not on me. As I see it, I am then still a member of this Paradise." (AA XXV:650)