5.

The Fall

That there was a first human pair (Adam & Eve) who so grievously sinned against God when tested that all of the rest of us are being punished for it (including animals), even though no one but the first human pair deserved to be punished. If it's argued that all of us deserve to be punished because we all would have sinned, then the test was a sham. For only if some of us would not have sinned can the test be considered a fair one. But if some of us would not have sinned under the same initial conditions then there are people who are being punished for something they never would have done. 1

he Fall is consistently one of the biggest objections that most atheists have to Christian theology. It stems from the fact that we live in a modern, individualist society and thus dont expect to suffer consequences for what our parents did. However, in a collectivist society, such a punishment makes perfect sense and is actually expected! The rub of this comes from the idea that Adam is the federal head of the entire human race. Before that gets unpacked, think carefully back to world history classes. As little as a few hundred years ago, whatever your father did dictated what you did. If your father was a blacksmith, you had no hope of being a doctor or a scribe. Vestiges of this still exist in our own culture. I experienced it first hand throughout high school. When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I told them A surgeon. The immediate follow-up question, without fail, was always Cool! Is your dad a doctor? When I said no, the person crinkled his or her nose at me. Why do you want to be a doctor, then? they would ask, almost with malice. As if I have no right to follow my own path in life. Legendary author Stephen Kings son Joe is, surprise, a New York Times best selling author. He writes under the pen name Joe Hill. It works both ways! Nowadays, even though it seems weird, the son of a life-long assembly line worker can become a surgeon. The child of a New York Times best selling author could become a New York Times best selling author, or a Unitarian Universalist minister. But, that did not happen in the time that the Bible was written. Jesus, for example, was a carpenter because his earthly father was a carpenter. The children were fated to do as the father did, and they had no choices. They could not even apprentice themselves to another career; it was bad form. So, you are what your father was. And, Adam, by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, fell into sin. His formerly good nature was corrupted to the core and Adam and all of Adams children, the human race found himself enslaved to sin. Adam possessed stewardship over all of Gods creation. That means that not only are

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Adams children corrupted and enslaved by sin, but it spreads to all of creation by virtue of being under Adams authority. We see this sort of thing in the Bible, and in other mythology. The king was never punished directly by God, the land and the people were punished. King David is a great example. When David sinned by taking the census in his pride, his people were punished. When David committed adultery with Bathsheba, the child was slated to die rather than David or Bathsheba. In the Arthurian legends, when King Arthur was struck with a terrible sickness, the entire land saw a famine. The Knights of the Round Table sought the Holy Grail to restore Arthur to good health, and when Arthur got better the famine ended. The Fall spreading to us as Adams children is not unprecedented, therefore. The key to understanding this, however, is that we are not punished for Adams bite; rather, we suffer the consequences of that ill-conceived choice. Which is inheriting a sinful nature and being enslaved to the flesh for as long as we reside on earth. Before anyone tries to say that this is unfair, this is not inconsistent with reality. If you get into a car driven by your friend, you might suffer some consequences of poor decisionmaking skills on the road. If your friend gets into an accident, especially one that is his fault, then you could potentially suffer broken bones or even death. Even if you control the car, you might still suffer from someone elses bad decisionmaking skills. A person might rear-end you at a traffic light, and cause you severe back pain thereafter. The Fall is no different than the other examples I just gave of suffering sever, life-altering consequences from the poor decisions of others. The difference here is that God has offered everyone a way out through Christ, if we accept the gift and live the life becoming of a person saved by grace. Its harder than it looks, but it beats hours of back surgery and physical therapy for the rest of your life.
1) John W. Loftus. Reality Check: What Must be the Case if Christianity is True? Debunking Christianity. <http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2010/05/reality-check-what-must-be-case-if_3023.html>. Accessed June 12, 2010.