If there were no evil in the world would we have heaven on Earth?
Perhaps.
Would you settle for the Garden of Eden on Earth?
Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden they were naked. That was fine. They were innocent. The only thing God told them not to do was eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As long as they did not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they could stay in the Garden of Eden. Then they did eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Well of course they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil because that is human nature. Suddenly they were ashamed because they were naked. Well that came out of left field. Even if you had newly invented the concept of "good and bad" the concept of "naked" had to be invented too. And since clothes hadn't been invented yet, naked as a concept is really a stretch. There is your evidence that someone messed with this story somewhere along the line.
So the real issue here is that the concepts of "good" and "bad" have been unleashed on the world.
This kind of judgement in the hands of humans spells the end of the Garden of Eden. Now we have the ability to pronounce judgements. Moods were no longer just moods, they were good moods and bad moods. Actions were no longer just actions they were good actions or bad actions. People were no longer just people they became good people and bad people. We get good guys and bad guys and that gives us the right to punish people. Then we start to see whole groups of people as good like us or bad not like us. We invent us verses them, and its a hop, skip, and a jump to war.
What makes something good or bad is all in our heads. See, in the Garden of Eden things just were. There were no good trees. There were no bad trees. The trees were just trees until judging made them so.
Next weeks lecture: Cain and Able; how changing from a hunter gatherer society to a settled agricultural society made everything even worse
