DR. IRWIN COHEN No longer in Eden

In many ways the most important part of the Bible is the very beginning: the story of creation and the first people.
The story tells us that there is but one Creator designing and governing all creation. This unified view is presented in terms understandable to the people of 3,000 years ago, but its underlying truth remains valid today. The basis of modern science is Einstein's assertion that there is but one set of physical laws independent of relative viewpoints.
Set against this grand unifying backdrop, the creation of humans is dramatically different. Three distinct steps in human creation are gradually unfolded. First, the physical being is made from the dust of the earth, or in today's understanding, from atoms and molecules. This step is not essentially different from the creation of all other things in the universe.
Second, the Creator breathes into the physical being and it awakens. No other creatures are given life this way. People were given an awareness of themselves and of the world that even the most intelligent animals do not share. Only people wonder why the world exists or whether life has a purpose.
Free will
Along with this awareness and wonder, there comes the sense of free will. It is doubtful that any animal wonders in its own mind whether it should or should not do something. We do. And in the story of Eden this sense of free will leads to the third and final step in our creation, the "forbidden fruit."
We became aware, as animals are not, that we will one day die. Surely this is the most mysterious, frightening and uniquely human knowledge we have.
Knowledge of self-mortality brings to us a soul-wrenchingly deep concern for the consequences of our actions, which is the root of human morality. That is why the forbidden fruit is said to be not of the tree of knowledge or of the tree of life, but rather of the tree of knowledge of good and bad. With this knowledge we can no longer live in animal-like innocence, for we have come to feel the terrible burden of responsibility. We must make decisions, knowing that we may be mistaken. We have learned the most human of human qualities, humility.
Fully human
We are, in that fateful moment, no longer in Eden. The third step in human creation is complete: We are fully human.
Each individual relives the Eden story. A baby is born a physical being, acting and reacting without thought or intent. Every parent witnesses the child's development of self-awareness with assertion of independence and free will, and at last of human awareness of right and wrong. These are the steps of human development, even as they are the steps of the story of Eden.
Eden was not, in this view, a paradise. It was the pre-human, animal innocence of those creatures that preceded humans. Humans do not, or should not, live this way. We hold a very special position in this world. We must exercise our responsibility, our dominion, over the world by caring for it and not despoiling it. And we should care for one another.
XDr. Irwin Cohen is a member of Rodef Sholem Congregation and is a retired professor of chemistry at Youngstown State University.