The Struggle of Man

For centuries, Adam has been deemed as the “Individual who doomed the human race” through one simple act—disobedience. Common themes throughout Genesis 3 provide peers with the notion that Eve tempted Adam and thus they created the original sin together; perhaps, the original sin spurred from a different entity altogether.
The first rebellion occurred when Lucifer challenged God’s authority in heaven. Lucifer acted upon his prideful craving of a more God-like status; ultimately leading to Lucifer being cast from the gates of heaven. This singular action is what set the stage for mankind to fail. Lucifer demonstrated not only the original sin, but the most grave of the seven deadly sins—pride.
When Lucifer was cast from the gates of heaven, he was demoted to earth. The same glorious creation that God made for man, and eventually woman. The question remains as to why God, being all-knowing, chose to permit Satan near his handiwork and his creations. Although this question is found to pose an illogical or ethical problem in those who do not credit Christianity with being factual, those who do deem God as definitive, seek the answer as—God grants the human race with free will. God desired for his creations to choose obedience and through submission, they would receive contentment for all of their days.

Lucifer enticed and infected Eve through the same mentality that led to his downfall. Prior to Eve eating the forbidden fruit, she had already displayed infidelity to God among her thoughts. Subsequently, Eve began to exhibit an envious mentality of her creator—insisting that if she too ate the forbidden fruit, she would become sagacious. According to an excerpt from Genesis, her lustful behavior is exhibited by her assertion, “Good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom” (3:6).
Rather than asking her creator why this specific tree was forbidden, she became obsessed and greedy with the thought of being a God. This notion of becoming equal with God presented one of the first shortcomings in civilization. Perchance Eve indulged in the forbidden fruit because she harbored resentment toward God being omnipotent, while she was expected to be obedient.
After having tasted the forbidden fruit, through direct disobedience, she gave the fruit to Adam. Adam, whom knew the consequences, chose to eat the fruit anyway. In doing so, both Adam and Eve felt the magnitude of their actions; as they began to come to the realization that they were naked. Nakedness, in perspective to Adam and Eve, symbolizes how far they had truly fallen from grace. They had been stripped of the “good” in the world. They no longer had the protection, convenience, or pleasant conditions of the Garden of Eden due to the nature of the “wisdom” they so longed to possess.
While obedience can be seen as morally acceptable, it does not denote virtue. You can be obedient to something that possesses negative attributes. Historical evidence demonstrates this idea through the actions of Stalin, Pol Pot, and Hitler. It is dependent upon the area under discussion that determines whether it is moral or immoral. For example, when Eve rebelled, she initially felt blameless, but it was then followed with tremendous remorse due to her actions. The internal indication that she felt after committing the sin demonstrated that her rebelliousness was not only bad, but would reap consequences for all of eternity.
Based on Adam and Eve’s knowledge and experience, it is clearly shown throughout text that in order to remain in God’s image, you would have to be obedient. Obedience kept Adam and Eve in concordance with God. Obedience possessed virtue, and by being virtuous—they were good. Once rebelliousness and worldly pleasures were sought out, it created a division between them and their creator. Their actions no longer possessed virtue because their mentality had become riddled with wickedness. In turn, they would spend the rest of eternity seeking redemption for their self-inflicted perversion.