Evidence · Case 06 · Problem of Evil
The book of Genesis, the account of the fall
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Sources
Genesis 3, NASB
Objections & responses
- God put the tree there, put the serpent there, and made humans who didn’t yet know good from evil, then punished them for a choice they couldn’t have understood. Isn’t Genesis 3 a setup rather than a fair test?
Jewish and Christian interpreters have wrestled with this reading for two millennia. The traditional reply is that the humans did know one thing clearly, that God had commanded them not to eat, and that obedience to a trusted creator does not require full knowledge of consequences; the choice was whether to trust. The presence of the serpent and the tree is what makes the choice real rather than staged, which any free will response requires. Whether the consequence fit the act is a fair question; the story’s own answer is that the consequence is the natural result of choosing autonomy from the source of life, not an external penalty bolted on.
- Original sin, the idea that everyone inherits guilt from Adam, is unjust and isn’t in Genesis 3 at all. It’s Augustine’s reading of Romans 5.
Correct that Genesis 3 does not teach inherited guilt. Romans 5 says sin and death spread to all, and that all are guilty of Adam’s sin is one interpretation of Paul, the Augustinian one; Eastern Christianity has never held that version. What this claim needs is only that Scripture traces the human condition to a turning away from God that affects everyone, which Genesis, Paul, and ordinary observation all support. The mechanism of inheritance is a real debate among Christians and is not settled here.