In all this yammering about impeachment lately certain things become obvious yet misinterpreted. Forget about the simple truth–that slithered out the room a long time ago. There does seem to be some “truth” to the statement recently made that we don’t believe in the truth but in facts. I would think that facts build to the truth but I guess it all depends on how you stack them: end-to-end, one- on-top-of-the-other or sideways. And if we really want to get iffy maybe take the facts off into another dimension and alternate universes and reality altogether.
Take Adam and Eve for instance. God dropped them into the Garden of Eden and gave them carte blanche. He gave them run of the place with one rule: Don’t eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil “for when you do you will surely die.” I honestly feel that God was the first Libertarian. The Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University says that a classic libertarian’s “perspective is that (of) peace, prosperity and social harmony.” Libertarians “are fostered by ‘as much liberty as possible’ and ‘as little government as necessary’.” It sounds like paradise: no government, basically no rules to follow and no taxes to pay. But you know somewhere somehow it was going to get screwed up and Adam and Eve set the standard. The old saying if it is too good to be true…
Man, despite God’s good graces, has made things much more complicated through the millennia’s endless rules and regulations. A large portion of the world’s population once believed that you could go to hell by eating meat on Friday. God created a couple of innocents to roam freely in Eden. But once God created man his creation sort of went off the rails or maybe it was when he created the serpent. According to the Bible it took just three chapters starting from “in the beginning” and basically one chapter in the Book of Genesis for Adam and Eve to meet up with the serpent and see their lives completely transformed. After that meeting with the serpent, there was no way to make the Garden of Eden great again.
History, however, is full of crafty, sinister, and evil individuals who can mesmerize the masses with their malevolence. It may have started in the Garden with the beguilement of Adam and Eve. However, it did not stop there. The art of the deal gave us great concepts like the Pharaohs were Gods. When that one did not float anymore somebody came up with the “Divine Right of Kings.”
We have seen outright brutal dictators like Hitler at his Nuremberg Nazi rallies. We have seen Stalin and his mass purges that sent millions off to Siberia never to be seen or heard from again.
So where did these reptilian people come from? In Genesis we are told that “the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.” Now the Bible does not give us an actual timeline on how long Adam and Eve were in Eden before they met with the serpent. It seems like one day God was taking a rib from Adam and the next thing you know he and Eve are having breakfast with the serpent.
But after their meeting with the snake, things changed for the worse. Often in life, we meet that one person or thing that can inspire the worst in us. For Adam and Eve it was the serpent telling them the tree in the middle of the garden has great fruit, the very best. “Don’t worry about God. I have a great relationship with God. We get along great and he is doing great things with Eden. God is somebody I can deal with. Besides, He is a great guy.”
Christians may call it original sin but I really think it was the original beguilement. When God created the world, and let us put aside for a moment the old argument of Creationism v Evolution, and assume that God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We can all agree it would have been a great place to raise your kids, a sort of nirvana neighborhood. However, the pair got played. After catching the serpent’s art of the deal they went right over the fence with the “No Trespassing” sign on it. The sad part is Adam and Eve knew they had been conned. Probably the same way Al Capone felt when he was fleeced for 50 Gees, just like the voters in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania who never had any real ring time with a fast con developer who may now be suffering from buyers remorse.
And how did Adam and Eve know they crossed that line? The found themselves hiding naked in the bushes mending fig leaves together. It would be safe to say that most of us have been found in similar situations only with our clothes on: Caught red-handed at the proverbial cookie jar. Most of us know not to take the boss’s parking spot; don’t eat somebody’s lunch left in the refrigerator. Yet there is always one of us who for whatever reason does not get it. Or maybe, like the snake, they just don’t care. From that time on I think all of mankind has been the subject of being beguiled by slippery ideas and catchy phrases
Today we can catch somebody “red handed,” on tape, live on camera saying exactly what they did. God did not need all the technical gadgets used today to catch a thief. He could see for himself that Adam and Eve were in their new fig leaf attire. This was not red-handed. More like bare-assed naked.
The pair did not have cock-n-bull story. Being innocents they had no idea how to lie their way out the situation. That would be an art learned and honed through time. And although buses were not around yet, Adam threw Eve right under the apple cart saying she gave him the apple, In turn, Eve pointed the finger at the snake. No loyalty here as we witness crap going down hill by the bucketful. You have to give the pair credit they did not cry and moan or seek legal advice because there was none to be had. (A fixer would have to come much later.) They took their eviction on the chin.
However, God went from being a libertarian to puritanical vengeful God as in Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Adam and Eve lost their interest-free credit card. It was strictly cash. They were now being held “over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire.”
In our modern day thinking we are quick to blame the victims and Adam and Eve are not exempt. How can two people be fooled by a talking snake saying that if they ate from this tree things would be great, they would be perfect. The serpent was able to play on the their vanity and a belief that somehow they were being left behind. It is not too hard to imagine somebody getting away with selling the Brooklyn Bridge or the Eiffel Tower. After all, the world is full of people trying to sell something bigger and better that glitters in gold.
As for the snake, he did not fare much better than our pair of innocents. Think about it. What crime did the serpent commit? What are the facts? If you think about it, the snake did not even eat the so-called apple, no proof at all. This could have been the first witch hunt or rattlesnake roundup. I can see the snake now saying the conversation he had with Adam and Eve about the tree of knowledge was perfect, He may have even suggested there was no sort of quid pro quo. Maybe he complained that God was not on the up and up with the tree in the middle of the garden. He just suggested that if the pair ate from the tree of knowledge the Garden of Eden would be great. He possibly could turn heavenly opinion around. He could have told God . “Hey God I am really a great guy, very intelligent, brilliant. I have one of the best brains around. It is not my fault Aimless Adam and Eyesore Eve are two not so bright people, ugly people who also are very stupid. There was no real collusion here because they are not very smart. Besides, they’re no angels.”
All of this brings us back to the facts. Some say facts are the truth. Maya Angelou said, “There is a world of difference between the truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.” This leads us to Mark Twain and what he said that fits today’s world of so-called fake news: “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” Or it is your lie you can tell it anyway you want.
The Bible does not record what the talking snake said to God , if anything, after the tree incident. And for sure God would not buying anything the serpent was selling. He condemned the the snake to a life of crawling on his belly and eating dust for the rest of his days.
https://theihs.org/who-we-are/what-is-libertarian/
http://mentalfloss.com/article/12809/smooth-operator-how-victor-lustig-sold-eiffel-tower
mystoryorhistory 