"And that's exactly what mythology does. Take the Bible, for instance-"
"But the Bible is nonsense," he cringed.
"No, no. Just look at the story of Genesis through a metaphorical lens. It's actually telling the story of a mathematical genesis, but doing so with symbols that normal people can comprehend."
"What are you talking about?"
"Adam and Eve are naked in the Garden of Eden. Everything is perfect and lovely and orderly. There is no chaos in this garden; there is nothing unknown. There is no relativity because everything is perfect, and there is nothing to fear. This represents the fundamental state from which the universe emerged. This fundamental state is God — all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving. It's a metaphorical place where everything and everyone is whole and home.
Then Eve is tempted by the serpent to eat the Forbidden Fruit on the Tree of Knowledge. One cannot know themselves unless they first un-know themselves. If you already know everything, there is nothing more to know. But Eve wanted more. She wanted to know herself, which is symbolized by her plucking the fruit, which in turn created the first 'wrong' choice. Therefore, to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, and know herself, her choice would inevitably create relativity — love and fear, good and evil, truth and illusion, etc.
The Garden of Eden represents perfect love and order, but once Eve chose to enter the realm of the relative, God had to create the polar opposite of these: fear and chaos. This was when God divided his neural network into infinite Markov blankets, each made in the 'image and likeness' of himself. This was the genesis of the recursive algorithm that created the universe. Suddenly, Eve could experience herself as something quite separate from what she is not. She could only do this by forgetting who she was.
This forgetfulness created fear for the first time. Now that chaos existed alongside order, and fear existed alongside love, Adam and Eve became self-conscious. They literally became conscious of themselves, because they suddenly existed as entities separate from the whole. In the Garden of Eden, they were completely naked. They had no fear or shame because fear and shame don't exist in the realm of the infinite. But then, as they were cast out of the orderly Garden of Eden into the chaotic realm of the relative, they put on clothing — which represents the armor we all wear.
Can you see how this is not a literal story? Adam and Eve didn't literally exist. It's a metaphorical story about the mathematical birth of the universe, when God created the realm of the relative. As God just said, it's 'mankind's early attempt to understand, and tell others in a way they could understand, a cosmic occurrence of which the human soul is deeply aware, but of which the mind can barely conceive.' He says even more about this particular story here..."
This is the knowledge of good and evil of which Adam and Eve partook. Until they understood this, there could be no life as you know it. Adam and Eve — the mythical names you have given to represent First Man and First Woman — were the Father and Mother of the human experience.
What has been described as the fall of Adam was actually his upliftment — the greatest single event in the history of humankind. For without it, the world of relativity would not exist. The act of Adam and Eve was not original sin, but, in truth, first blessing. You should thank them from the bottom of your hearts — for in being the first to make a “wrong” choice, Adam and Eve produced the possibility of making any choice at all.
In your mythology you have made Eve the “bad” one here — the temptress who ate of the fruit, the knowledge of good and evil — and coyly invited Adam to join her. This mythological set-up has allowed you to make woman man’s “downfall” ever since, resulting in all manner of warped realities — not to mention distorted sexual views and confusions.
Neale Donald Walsch
