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Biblical Series IV: Adam and Eve: Self-Consciousness, Evil, and Death

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I turned my attention in this lecture to the older of the two creation accounts in Genesis: the story of Adam and Eve. In its few short paragraphs, it covers:  1. the emergence of human self-consciousness;  2. mankind's attendant realization of vulnerability, mortality, and death;  3. the origin of the capacity for willful evil, as the ability to exploit that newly-realized vulnerability; 4. the emergence of shame as a consequence of that realization; 5. the shrinking from divine destiny that occurred when shame emerged; and 6. the beginning of true history, with the self-conscious toil that life in history entails.  Impossible. Amazing. Breathtaking.

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Psychology / Theology
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