Does God Regret The Fall?

The idea in the previous post of there being limits on where we ought to live on earth was given another spin on a piece about whether creativity has limits:

Rollo May:

“Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness.”

“It is not by accident that the Hebrew myth that marks the beginning of human consciousness, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, is portrayed in the context of a rebellion. Consciousness is born in the struggle against a limit, called there a prohibition. Going beyond the limit set by Yahweh is then punished by the acquiring of other limits which operate inwardly in the human being – anxiety, alienation, guilt. But valuable qualities also come out of this experience of rebellion: the sense of personal responsibility and ultimately the possibility, born out of loneliness, of human love. Limiting and expanding thus go together.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Genesis passages about creation and the fall, and am wondering: if we take things at face value, would God, post-2nd-coming regret the fall happening? Or does it bring us to a better place in the end?

Personally, I’d agree with May that it is a story about the birth of consciousness. In fact, I think Genesis is a pretty incredible story about birth, period. Waters breaking. Pain and darkness. The breaking into light. I’m constantly amazed by our little boy: all he wants to do is name the animals. It seems totally instinctive. And he will begin to see right and wrong. And begin to appreciate the ‘other’ – that things exist outside of himself. And there will be pain and feelings of rejection to overcome. And decisions and sweet fruit… But hopefully followed by a conscious decision to love. Not one based on auto-response to his ‘creators’. Would I prefer he stayed as the cute, unknowing baby? Sometimes. But of course not really.

In order for his consciousness to become, I must allow him to push and break through boundaries. I can’t wrap him in cotton wool and stop him ever pushing the limits. Will he do things wrong? Of course. Will he really piss me off? Like when he ruined the record deck – of course. But is it vital to his development to allow him this boundary-pushing play? Definitely. Just as it continues to be for us as adults: we need to push the boundaries in order to be sure of our limitations and experience new expansions. You don’t get Jazz playing the Blues straight.

Perhaps then, Adam and Eve actually stand for us as the first artists. And their journey of pain and choices and new limits stands as an archetype for artists everywhere. Just as the Second Adam perhaps shows us the most complete picture of an artist: creative, in tradition, playing with dirt, generous, sacrificial, prepared to die for his message, creating something that will last for ever.