Friday 02 November 2012

Background

Today's passage is from a secondaccount of the origins of everything, in which the beautiful gardenis already in place and man is a kind of special creation withparticular horticultural responsibilities.  His task is tolook after the garden. It will provide him with food for hisbody.

But within the garden there lies aforbidden knowledge. What is this knowledge? And why is itforbidden to the humans? Also given that it is forbidden, why is itthere in the garden at all?

There have been countless theories, andevery advocate of a new theory suggests it is so blindingly obviousthat disagreement is beyond comprehension. Modestly, therefore,here is some food for thought: the story of the forbidden tree isan example of what is properly called 'mystery' - not in the senseof a difficult problem that hasn't been solved yet, but rather aproblem that cannot be solved within any framework that humans candevise. Oddly, one of the most significant results in twentiethcentury- mathematics is a proof that there are problems we candescribe perfectly clearly, but cannot ever solve.

This story, then, serves as a reminderthat despite our immense human capacity for scientificinvestigation and engineering application we remain creaturessubject to limits. Our calling may be to become God-like incharacter (because we are made in God's image), but not to be God.We can't predict where we shall find the boundaries, but boundariesthere certainly are, and we must be watchful for them.

To Ponder

• According to this story the first man was assigned his placeand responsibilities. How do you react to the idea that your placein the grand scheme of things is fixed and predetermined? Whatfreedom do you feel you really have?

• Are the boundaries universal-the same for everyone? Or are(perhaps in addition) there personal boundaries that arise becausewe are unique individuals? What boundaries have you discovered foryourself?