Adam, Eve and the Rise of Self Consciousness - Snippet 2
The addition of finitude to the human equation
Upon the ejection from Eden a new equation for life is introduced. Becker gives a description of this equation in "The Denial of Death"1 using a quote from the prominent theologian Kierkegaard.
"For the self is a synthesis, in which the finite is the limiting factor and the infinite is the expanding factor."-Kierkegaard
Essentially he recognizes the duality innate in humanity, that man is both God and animal. Becker describes it as the symbolic and physical self. In more laymen terms the "infinite" is the spirit or soul and the “finite” is the flesh and blood body you inhabit. Therefore, a balance between the two becomes the product of the synthesis equation. In summary the human equals the infinite minus the finite or the spirit minus physical reality. To better illustrate this sliding scale Becker continues with his explanation by describing the extremes of the human equation.
The infinite extreme manifests itself in the form of schizophrenia a complete detachment of the infinite or expanding self from the physical realities of the body and objective world. On the other extreme a depressive psychosis exists, it's prognosis is too much dwelling in the finite. Too much of a realization of one's vulnerability, too much fear and trembling. Too acutely aware of the horrors, destruction and capacity for evil interweaved into existence. The fear of being destroyed by the ruthless reality of the world causes the person to shutter within themselves, sometimes even physically sheltering themselves within their home as is the case of agoraphobia, another manifestation of this extreme. Therefore, the ideal synthesis of the human animal is the appropriate amount of the infinite mitigated by the proper amount of the finite. Plato had a similar idea in his description of “the ideal citizen”:
"He who is only an athlete is too crude, too vulgar, too much of a savage.
He who is a scholar only is too soft, too effeminate.
The ideal citizen is the scholar athlete, the man of thought and the man of action." - Plato
Although Plato uses gender characteristics as his sliding scale the underlying motif is the same. The mental or expanding self is represented by the scholarly and must be grounded in the physical realities of the body represented by the athlete. Plato like Becker and Kierkegaard are arguing the ideal human exists as a balance between the mental and physical, the scholarly and the athletic, the God and the ape.
The fruit of the tree of knowledge introduces the finite variable into the human equation. As mentioned we weren't purely God's or immortal before consuming it but without the conscious awareness of our mortality we existed as such. We can thank the serpent for our introduction to death and the addition of finitude to the human equation.
"And the serpent said onto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes will be opened and you be like God, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3: 4&5
The serpents words to Eve are very cunning. He doesn't overtly lie since Adam nor Eve drop dead after consuming the fruit. He also intertwines a enticing promise to Eve telling her that "your eyes will be opened and you will be like God."
It's a notable observation that God made his creation in his image however it (man) was not a direct copy, instead he put finite limits on it, limits they are at first unconscious of. As mentioned the finite isn't introduced until the consumption of the fruit from the tree of knowledge.
Man, his creation is thrust into the garden with two trees that would essentially "complete" his transition from human to God and rid him of these limits. One tree being the tree of knowledge which upon consumption gives the rise of self-consciousness and the moral scale of good and evil. The other, the tree of life in which the consumption of its fruit would grant life eternally.
Therefore when the human was ejected from Eden they were essentially an incomplete God created in is his image and now only possessing some of his attributes. The major missing piece being life eternal, which is the promise made to believers. The transcendence of death and gaining of immortal life is a goal not unique to Christianity. On the contrary the transcendence of death was baked into several previous religions.
Centuries before the Roman empire and the rise of Christianity the Greeks had their own form of institutionalized religion, the epitome of which was the temple of Eleusis. The mysteries of the Eleusinian rituals could fill several books and in fact have.2,3 Regardless the principal ritual practiced at Eleusis was associated with one's death and the transcendence of it. Initiates of the Eleusinian mysteries which included influential philosophers like Plato would emerge from the sacrament no longer fearing death thus de facto gaining eternal life.
Centuries later in the Christian monasteries of Mount Athos the inscription "If you die before you die then you won't die when you die" can be found. An inscription implying a similar salvation as the Eleusinian initiates achieved. This desire to return to Eden, to eat from the tree of life has been a quest everlasting by humanity as a whole. However, after the fall the journey back is excruciatingly arduous. This too is played out in the Adam and Eve story.
"So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every which way, to guard the way to the tree of life." Genesis 3:24
As mentioned earlier, man was never intended to be immortal, evidenced by the requirement to eat from the tree of life to obtain it. However, without possessing the acute awareness of death as was the case for Adam and Eve before eating from the tree of knowledge they may as well have been. This is because psychologically there's no difference between having no articulate knowledge of death and actually being immortal. That Eden like state of mind of blissful ignorance is the same state of mind as early childhood.
Once Adam and Eve were ejected from paradise there would be no return, at least not without extreme effort. The way now guarded by cherubim and flaming swords. The same is true for the child. That sense of immortality once experienced feels as though it is no longer obtainable. The addition of finitude to the human equation now puts the person in an entirely different world. The way back to paradise and that sense of immortality, that ignorant bliss, that tree of life seems forever lost now blocked by the conscious awareness of death.
After this psychological fall just like in the Adam and Eve story the behavior of the human animal changes radically.
"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken for dust you are and dust you will return." - Genesis 3: 17 – 19
Footnotes:
Ernest Becker, “The Denial of Death”, Free Press, 1973
Brian Muraresku, “The Immortality Key”, St. Martin’s Press, 2020
R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hoffman, Carl A.P Rucke, “The Road to Eleusis”, North Atlantic Books, 1978