There is a very long tradition that identifies  ‘sin’ as a product of a loss of innocence. Somehow this explanation has alweays raised more questions in my mind than what it seems to offer as a solution to the mystery of the origin "original sin".

The story is then retold like this. Adam and Eve were innocent. They did not know that there was right and wrong. These two beings therefore existed in a sort of a naive and amoral world where apparently neither was work toilsome nor in fact was relationship either. Nature and mankind were cooperative and nature naturally was mankind’s ally. Along came a serpent, one that had yet not evolved to a legless state, and this serpent introduced mankind to subterfuge, to the existence of lies, to hidden truths and mysteries too awe inspiring (so beautifully depicted by Blake) for such innocent minds to comprehend. In eating the ‘forbidden’ fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve chose to forego their innocence.

Pandora’s box, the hidden mystery of hidden knowledge proved to be too great a temptation. Once initiated there was no going back. One cannot unknow what one has discovered. One cannot eliminate reality nor even the memory of reality. Tainted by knowledge, mankind feel out of innocence and out of grace into a state of ‘worldly’ enslavement.

Nature  ceased to cooperate, and paradise was lost. 

Live to serve : Serve to live