Using Punishment and Self-Persuasion to Explain Adam and Eve The Book of Genesis tells the story of how God created man and woman. He permitted Adam and Eve to eat from any tree in his garden except the Tree of Knowledge, and they faced death if they did. They were handed out a severe threat; that of death. As we all know, Adam and Eve did eat from the tree of knowledge and were banished from the Garden of Eden. Looking at the situation from a social psychology perspective, I will examine why that was the case, and what God could have theoretically done to be obeyed. In other words, I will discuss why a mild threat might have worked better in this case.
What is forbidden is desired. This age-old adage is the source of Adam and Eve’s demise. So it is only natural to conclude that the only way to redeem the two besides walling up the Tree of Knowledge, is to make the desired fruit somehow less desirable. One possible solution to that conundrum is by threatening them with a milder form of punishment; say if they were threatened with an hour’s worth of manual labor. One might ask what makes it different from severe punishment. In both circumstances, they will experience dissonance. Adam and Eve would be aware that they are resisting the urge to taste that delicious fruit. Under severe threat, when they ask themselves why they still haven’t tried it, they are reminded of the threat of death. In other words, they have sufficient external justification; they’d rather stay alive. This reduces their dissonance.
Dissonance is also experienced under a mild threat, but the difference is crucial. When they ask themselves that same question, they cannot come up with a convincing answer since the threat is so lenient that it does not provide t...
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...desirable. However, since this is not what happened in the story, it is still worth examining what did.
As we established, Adam and Eve, after some time, had reduced their dissonance to the point where eating the fruit was not longer an issue; they decided it was time. The snake serves to facilitate or speed up their decision and nothing else. It seduces them into doing it, but they would never have done it if they devalued the fruit. The snake simply coaxes them, assures them that they are making the correct decision.
In conclusion, a less severe threat might have worked better for Adam and Eve than the one they were handed for all the reasons discussed. It could have made all the difference in the world for the two. Although the story is not typical, I have tried to prove that modern social psychology can be applied and used to understand even the oldest of tales.
When wisdom is mixed with disobedience it opens the door for evil to abound. Although Eve was the first to take of the fruit and Adam the second, both shared responsibility in the transgression as Arnold describes it. (62;67,
Adam was the first man that God created and was created to be the image of God himself. God planted the beautiful Garden of Eden in which there was no sin and the trees were filled with delicious fruits, everything a person would need to eat. In the middle of the garden was the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” One day, a serpent came into the garden and convinced Eve to eat an apple from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. The fruit did not make Adam and Eve any better than they already were. Instead, the jealousy, the desire to eat what was forbidden—and then the physical eating of the fruit that was forbidden—allowed sin to enter humanity. God punished Adam and Eve, and all their descendants, by making their lives hard. Likewise, in the novel, peace and innocence left the Devon school and Gene and Finny's friendship, and after the winter session, discipline and hard work began. Eve eating the apple can be paralleled to Gene jostling the limb of the tree while Phineas was standing on the edge of it for in that second, both of their lives ch...
The loss of innocence for Adam and Eve is connected to the notion of truly "knowing" and "seeing." Before eating the forbidden fruit, they were in blindly living; abiding by the commands of God without question. It is the serpent who tempts them, and challenges God's authoritative power. Curiosity and knowledge are what lead Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. Once they do, they realize the difference that exists between them and the creatures around them, between the physical bodies of Adam and Eve; difference exists everywhere around them. When Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge, they then think and see for the first time.
Cognitive dissonance makes it difficult for people to accept conflicting new ideas. Conflicting beliefs create discomfort
Cognitive Dissonance can be a good thing or a bad thing; it will be a good thing, if the individual(s) involved let their correct attitudes and beliefs guide their actions, and not the other way around.
Cooper, Joel. Cognitive Dissonance: Fifty Years of a Classic Theory. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2007. Print
In the beginning, God did not want anyone to be sinful. God created mankind in the image of himself. The purpose of humans is to maintain the Earth. He placed a man and woman into a tempt-full location. He commanded for them to not eat off the tree of forbidden fruit. However, a serpent inquired about what God had stated. After gaining that knowledge, the serpent tricked the woman, into eating the fruit, from the forbidden tree. The woman then persuaded the man, to also eat fruit, from the forbidden tree. God then checked up on the man and woman. He asked the man why he ate the fruit; the man had blamed the woman. God then asked the woman why she ate the forbidden fruit; the woman had blamed the serpent. God was angered and disappointed by Adam’s and Eve’s action that in return, He punished the serpent,
Let’s go back to biblical times for just a moment. Fromm explains that during the time Adam and Eve reside in the Garden of Eden, they live in innocence and harmony. This harmony is disrupted by the “Act of Disobedience,” which is labeled in biblical terms as the “original sin.” This act of disobedience describes the first moral flaw, and the consequential corruption of mankind. By disobeying God, Adam and Eve take the first steps towards independence and freedom. This helps them reach their spiritual and intellectual capacity. After Adam and Eve leave the Garden of Eden, they create a new harmony referred to as “the end of days” (622). To the prophets, man is right to disobey; this allows him to think for himself. In many ways, parents encourage kids to think for themselves. By simply picking out their clothes or packing their own lunch, children move away from following their parents, and towards the formation of their own identities...
In the beginning, God created a perfect world without sin, pain, or agony. God created this world so some of His creation would have a home and a place to serve him. However, this model of a flawless utopia became corrupted very quickly. God’s prized creation, humans, disobeyed the only command that their Father had set in place: not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam and
The novel East of Eden by John Steinbeck is an allegory to the biblical story of Cain and Abel, and many of its characters become embodiments of both good and evil. As they struggle to overcome what has been decided for them they are taught they hold the power to overcome and rise above their destiny’s. When the Hebrew idea of “timshel” is introduced to the allegory of Cain and Abel, it become apparent that whether life is predestined or not; mankind holds the ultimate ability of deciding what will become of himself. Adam’s choice to move on from Cathy, Cal’s decision to forgive himself, and Cathy’s decision to let evil overcome her prove that overcoming what is predestined for one lies in the hands of the individual.
God knew that since both Adam and Eve had now gained knowledge of both good and evil they would soon learn to really appreciate life and all it has to offer. And for this reason the couple was expelled from paradise. Had Eve ignored the serpent and refused to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil perhaps civilization would still exist as nirvana. However happiness and in effect perfection is relative. A beautiful spring day is only as beautiful as the worst s...
The creation story in Genesis refers to a serpent classically interpreted as an evil entity. If we consider God’s warning that eating fruit from a certain tree would result in death the same day and that the record indicates that the only two humans on the planet did not, we must reconsider the role of the serpent and reevaluate the roles of good and evil and how they apply to ...
The “Fall of Man” story in The Bible, better known as the “Garden of Eden “story or “Adam and Eve”, is the story of how sin entered the perfect world that God had created.According to the Genesis 3, the book and the chapter in which the story is located, God gave Adam and Eve, the only two humans ever to be created at the time, a perfect place to dwell, a paradise called the Garden of Eden . This garden contained everything they needed and it was good. They had only one condition, they could not eat from the tree that was in the center of the garden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because God said that if they ate it the would “ surely die”. Well one day a snake came along, or should I say Satan disguised as a snake, to tal...
In the debate titled Of the Equal or Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve, two authors; Isotta Nogarola and Ludovico Foscarini, argue about the original sin committed by Adam and Eve. Nogarola first states that Eve lacked a sense and constancy and that she therefore sinned less than Adam did. In her case the serpent thought of Adam as invulnerable due to his constancy. God created Adam to have unchanged opinions and state of mind, in order to avoid falling into the serpent’s persuasion, however Eve’s vulnerability led her to a severe sin. God found Adam guilty for the sin because he esteemed man more highly than woman and led his command towards Adam to not eat the fruit from the tree. Weak and inclined to indulge on the fruit, Nogarola claims, Eve
Satan is often referred to as the tempter, and at the root of every temptation is the power of persuasion. Temptation is so strong that it even led to the fall of humanity. In Genesis 3, Satan deceives the woman, Eve, by saying that “You will not surely die…For God know that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” And the rest is history. But, what’s important here is the fact that Satan offers her a reward. He says that if Eve eats the fruit, she will be like God. Eve falls into the trap of the first principle of persuasion: reward. Rewards surround our lives today like it surrounded Adam and Eve’s lives at the beginning of history. Today, we hold out the opportunity of a vacation for a salesman who sells enough of the company’s products. We promise candy to a four-year-old if he keeps quiet in the grocery store. We dangle an A before a student to get her to study harder. Rewards make us work harder, whether we want to admit it or not. Alfie Kohn disagrees and states, “when we are working for a reward, we do exactly what is necessary to get it and no more” (Kohn, 63). However, Kohn is flawed in his thinking. Think of what would happen if both teams who played in the Super Bowl got identical trophies ...