Health Lessons from The Fall in Genesis
The story of The Fall in the Book of Genesis of the Bible can be applied to explain how we do science wrong and how we make decisions about health and nutrition.
The central issue is the meaning of picking from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
This is not being against knowledge, it's being against mixed knowledge on an overall false path, rather than getting just truthi from God.
Listening to God includes honoring the way he designed nature through genetics, whole food, and connections to sun and earth, not trying to modify nature too much thinking it will improve nature or by treating nature as the problem.
The story of the fall does NOT mean that God wants to keep people in ignorance by forbidding Adam and Eve to get knowledge. It’s that people often use poorly understood knowledge irresponsibly as with technology, genetic modification and “sorcery medicine.” A proper understanding of science can help understand this story and how to not commit these and common errors today like “supplement sins.”
Genesis 3 reveals a clearer meaning when we think of how it applies to God’s design of nature. NIV translations below.
The first step is when the serpent representing Satan talks to Eve in the garden.
“Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the Garden?”
She says this is not true, he sows a seed of doubt that God and nature are not enough and we must do things our own way to get a better result.
Eve answers that, “We may eat from any fruit in the garden except one in the middle of the garden, we cannot touch it or we will die.” This is the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
The serpent says, “You will not certainly die For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
She is lead to believe there will be no consequences for doing it her way.
It also appeals to pride that you can do better doing it your own way by not by faith and following the rules.
“When the woman [Eve] saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.”
These are known as the three temptations of Eve as stated in 1 John 2:16:
“For everything in the world—lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”
“Pride of life” is pride from knowing your own way.
Lust of the eyes is that fruit looks good on the surface, superficial analysis, all that glitters is gold.
Lust of the flesh are things like food, pleasure, drugs, and, I would add, feeling as sensation based knowing to make decisions by “doing what feels right,” which actually should be subordinate to reason, says the Bible.
So their eyes were opened and they noticed they were naked and felt shame and fear.
The shame and fear were a result of what they had done, not a curse from God, it let in other voices. Then they had to use fig leaves to cover-up. Now they would have to work harder to use nature on the path of doing things their own way, including through “painful toil” to eat.
Other health consequences are curses on women in Genesis 3:16: pain in menstruation and giving birth. These are presented as punishment, but can also be seen as consequence of unhealthy ways of living.
It is said that difficult birthing has increased with modern less healthy lifestyles.
I have observed PMS being reduced and eliminated with nutrition.
Then God makes them garments, demonstrating he is still providing, perhaps soothing the shame.
But he also banishes them from the Garden of Eden because he cannot trust them:
“The man has now become more like one of us, knowing good from evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and live forever.”
The tree of life represents God’s designs of genetics, food, and the earth at that time with the firmament (not well understood), which afford living forever or a longer life in the Bible before the flood. The tree of life was accessed through faith and obedience, not trying to figure it out by picking the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Note “us” referring also to angels, like cherubim that then guard the gate of Eden with burning swords to keep Adam and Eve out so they would not pick from the tree of life.
Angels are an importnat part of the story because a third of the angels rebelled, following Lucifer, because they wanted to do things their way out of pride. This has already happened as Lucifer or Satan has acted through the serpent.
Another round of rebellion is in Genesis 6 when the angels manifested on Mt Hermon first to take human women. This creates the hybrid nephilim giants and the genetically impure with evil and having superpowers to create higher technology like genetic modification and ancient architecture around the world that is impossible to explain by today’s science. They had knowledge of the tree of life and other heavenly knowledge and it did not go well.
This is the problem with God giving angel and humans will, God is not all powerful and cannot just fix it. It takes process of learning and spiritual warfare to get back to the Garden.
This involves sacrifice of the immediate flesh world to attain God’s way on earth and in heaven.
Why it has to be this way is a mystery that we just have to work with.
Sacrifice is most obviously not just eating what tastes good but what is healthy as a part of God’s design.
Not just looking at the surface understanding of things as in “lust of the eyes’ but deeper science.
The problem of pride is much deeper and often unseen.
Putting human knowledge first means the pride of thinking you can know everything.
Anything you don’t understand must be wrong.
Nature is Wrong
The idea that nature is wrong is on the overemphasis on infectious disease and neglect that man made-toxins create even more problems nowadays
It was assumed that nature is dirty and less bacteria is better, but a need for balance has been recognized.
And when people do have infectious diseases the solution is a toxic one that is seen as stronger.
Sometimes you can’t just kill and infection with toxins or even naturally, but need to build natural immunity by treating all nutrient deficiencies for every cell and organ in the body, including white blood cells and the organs that produce them.
Working with the design of nature.
The Body Is Wrong
In today’s medical paradigm, it is often assumed the doctor is right and the body is wrong
Removing misbehaving organs like a gallbladder.
Suppressing the symptom rather than realize the symptom may be trying to do something good, understand the causes, and work with that.
More illusions of certainty and control.
The Patient is Wrong
Due to complexity of nature’s design and problems individuals can have unique combinations of problems and solutions.
The prideful mental dictatorship says that if the truth is not in studies, then the patient can’t be having the problems they say they have.
It’s important to listen to all symptoms and the ways that people invent to improve.
Clinical practitioners have to invent unique combinations of things for complete solutions that may only be partially substantiated with research.
There is a scientific basis to humility and love.
Supplement Sins
This is what is actually happening when you assume that the only nutrients are stated on the label of a food package or supplement. This is not acknowledging God’s design in the complexity of nature beyond our understanding.
If a package of beef only lists fat and protein contents, then it can’t have mineral or vitamins, people tend to assume. Therefore, they buy supplement for micronutrients. I was just being sarcastic, many people can't read well anymore.
Only reading what is explicit assumes you can and must know everything.
All knowledge is what you can see on the surface label, a subtler version of lust of the eyes.
We could even say this fits lust of the flesh as a mere feeling of knowing and being in control and a flesh comfort of less effort: being lazy and not doing the harder work of looking up nutrient values of foods in data bases.
These temptations and mental errors follow from the doubts of Eve that lead her to picking from the tree of knowledge:
- Nature’s design for health is not enough.
- There will be no consequences if you do it your way.
Downsides of supplements:
- If they are isolated ingredients then cofactor nutrient for utilizing the targeted nutrient are missing.
- Processes of extraction like heat, solvents and even freezing can weaken their power.
- Additives can be toxic.
- More expensive than food because the whole point is for someone to make money with incentive for dishonesty.
Gas-lighting excuses are easy:
“You have to standardize contents as extracts and isolates or you don’t know what you are getting.”
That has some justification for scientific research that needs to isolate variables but it goes too far.
You can just take more of whole herb in bulk in more potent form instead of its extract to compensate for variability. It’s a better value.
“The soil is so depleted we have to take supplements.”
This is exaggerating and twisting the truth about soil depletion into a lazy generalization.
This assumes supplement works even when they don’t work as well or are hurting people.
It assumes that even some partly depleted soils cannot compete with crap supplements.
Not all soil is the same, variables include:
- Organic versus non organic
- grazing land that has never been depleted
- properly rotated crop land
- erosion management
- sea food
Some people are NOT finding the best options of supplements and foods to compare through their own experimentation Tey aren’t able to pick foods and supplements and feel results of their experiments.
For some people it’s more important to understand what is going on under the microscope and then deduce what to do.
People lived for thousands of years without science through paying attention to feedback on what works for survival. Granted, conditions were more natural but this is still an indispensible component of making health decisions.
Practical science depends on results, not just explanations we hope lead to results.
The Holy Spirit and Empirical Confirmation
God is heard personally in the form of the Holy Spirit that comes to us, which we can understand in the metaphor of the wind.
Sometimes we don’t know what you are hearing, so we can discern of spirits through results.
You can’t see the wind but you can see its results in things it moves.
The wind is God and his fathomlessly complex design of nature, you can’t see all of it but know when we are on the right track by results or “fruits” as the Bible says.
So it is with nutrition: you don't always know why but you can know the result better by not becoming obsessed with why in a reductionist manner first.
The metaphor of the Holy Spirit as wind suggests a faith with empirical confirmation.
Faith also involves acting and staying the course even when results are delayed, but doing things on principle and other forms of encouragement from the HS.
Sometimes the voice of the Holy Spirit is just a whisper and is often hard to discern from noise from pre-existing opinions, appearances, desires or other voices.
Faith and science are complex journeys. My science is guided by prayer. I don’t usually get direct answers, but may catch smaller cues better and always seem to find the right things.
As the song goes, ‘your stairway to heaven likes on the whispering wind.’
Eat to energize, detoxify & immunize.
Move to circulate, align, & relax.
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Move to circulate, align, & relax.
Primal Rejuvenation Health Coaching
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Free Assessment
See how I support you fully in
Health Coaching Steps
I work over video: Facebook, Zoom, Google, from Michigan, USA
[email protected]
Follow me on FACEBOOK:
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Primal Rejuvenation
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enough to make a difference
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enough to implement
Sensitive
to individual needs
