One particularly telling representation of the fundamental relation between man and freedom is offered in the biblical myth of man's expulsion from paradise. The myth identifies the beginning of human history with an act of choice, but it puts all emphasis on the sinfulness of this first act of freedom and the suffering resulting from it. Man and woman live in the Garden of Eden in complete harmony with each other and with nature. There is peace and no necessity to work; there is no choice, no freedom, no thinking either, Man is forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He acts against God's command, he breaks through the state of harmony with nature of which he is a part without transcending it.
From the standpoint of the Church which represented authority, this is essentially sin. From the standpoint of man, however, this is the beginning of human freedom. Acting against God's orders means freeing himself from coercion, emerging from the unconscious existence of prehuman life to the level of man. Acting against the command of authority, committing a sin, is in its positive human aspect the first act of freedom, that is, the first human act. In the myth the sin in its formal aspect is the acting against God's command; in its material aspect it is the eating of the tree of knowledge. The act of disobedience as an act of freedom is the beginning of reason.
The myth speaks of other consequences of the first act of freedom. The original harmony between man and nature is broken. God proclaims war between man and woman, and war between nature and man, Man has become separate from nature, he has taken the first step towards becoming human by becoming an "individual". He has committed the first act of freedom. The myth emphasizes the suffering resulting from this act. To transcend nature, to be alienated from nature and from another human being, finds man naked, ashamed. He is alone and free, yet powerless and afraid. The newly won freedom appears as a curse; he is free from the sweet bondage of paradise, but he is not free to govern himself, to realize his individuality.
You are at this point. Your enemy has made himself a false idol and an affront to God. He's given the masses a new Eden, filled with untold pleasures, vice, debauchery and has corrupted the tree of knowledge. Your newly won freedom from the corrupt Eden must appear a curse to you, much the same way when we originally left the garden. You are alone, but free. You are free from the mindless bondage of "paradise", but are not free to govern yourself or realize your individuality.
What you do from here is up to you. God gave man the freedom of choice. We chose knowledge. Not wanting man to suffer in bondage of paradise, we were given the world. When the majority turned their eyes away from God, prayed to new false idols of celebrities and whomever else the prophets in the media told them to praise, they gave up the world. Their children grew up never tasting knowledge and truly believe they are in a paradise. They have all the knowledge in the world at their fingertips, yet lack the wisdom to discern fact from fiction.
In you has been planted a new seed of knowledge that must grow, spread roots throughout the world and bear fruit or wither and die. You are naked and afraid. But you have knowledge and, with it, the freedom of choice. All you have to do is make one.
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