The Fall: The Most Insidious Myth of All

In a previous post (Eros and Psyche) I talked about the conflict between the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian worldviews and that Western civilization is a schizophrenic mix of both. These worldviews have generated conflicting mythologies that have had an enormous impact on art and literature.

The most appalling, sinister and damaging of all the myths is the Judeo-Christian myth of the Fall. We know that it never happened. Even the most devout Christian accepts that it is a metaphor. But what they still cling onto is the insane notion that it has an important metaphorical meaning.

The reality is that it has no meaning at all. Not only did the Fall not happen, it is also a metaphorical lie. It is nonsense.

This rather nasty myth has burdened Western civilization with body shame, the crazy idea of Original Sin, a profound mistrust and hatred of the natural world and a crippling belief that our true nature is ‘pure’, ‘spiritual’ and ‘other-worldly’.

The specifically Christian interpretation is based on a Jewish version of ancient Semitic and Babylonian myths. For a start, Eve did not give Adam an apple. The apple is not native to the ME, it is native to Central Asia and the last wild apple forests lie in the Tien Chan mountains of Kazakhstan. The original Tree of Knowledge was likely a pomegranate, which links us into a collection of myths around fertility and spiritual knowledge.

When Hades gives Persephone six pomegranate seeds, she is tricked into spending six months in the underworld.

Charles Moffat, The Rape of Persephone

It is no mistake that Hades is confused with the Christian Hell. But the original myth is about the cycle of the seasons. Persephone is the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest.

However the Christian telling changes much of this meaning. The Garden of Eden, instead of being a metaphor for nature’s abundance, becomes a metaphor for spiritual purity and innocence. When Eve tempts Adam with knowledge, they are cast from this state of spiritual innocence into a world of punishment and sin. What an awful story. And the Christian God wastes no time in punishing Adam and Eve. How? In the case of Adam he must labour hard in unfruitful soil but Eve is given a special punishment. God attacks her through the birth process. Charming.

If anything this is a myth about the struggle for life, but it is a shame that it is seen as a punishment.