If Adam had not fallen. Part 2

If Adam had not fallen

Part 2: We have fallen further than we think

I am not as I could be. I am not as I should be. I am painfully aware that I could be so much better than I am. Therefore, I want to strive to become better. This is a key dynamic of my life.

Of course, I could ignore this impulse and rationalise it. Stick Genesis in the bin and go easy on myself. I am an evolved creature. I have to live in society, and society has its laws which I’d better not break unless I want to risk the prescribed penalty, and we have codes of behaviour that most of us regard as “good” – they help us to get along with each other and feel OK about ourselves. We recognise that we will make mistakes from time to time – but that’s only natural. We will do our best, perhaps come to terms with some weakness we can’t master, and just get on with our lives – don’t be too hard on yourself.

Yes, that could work – all so reasonable, but we may well just be deluding ourselves. Settling for half-measures. As individuals and as a society, we sell ourselves into a cosy bed of corruption. “Ooh, surely that word “corruption” is too harsh?”. Very few of us do anything that is “really bad”. Yes, I was weak and snatched at something when I should have shown some moral composure – but it wasn’t that bad. Yet somehow, we are in the world as it is, with so much suffering. It is part of the nature of evil that makes it so very evil that just little failures here and there somehow add up to the horrors that so many people endure.