A question is posed: How did men come into the state of sin? How could one possibly choose the principles of sin which are completely irrational and useless for his survival?!

The following analysis will show us that the root of all evil is pride, i.e. in man's irrational and completely senseless independence - independence by all means.

Sin is the only and the highest thing a man can achieve without God.

THE ORIGINS OF SIN

God has created the world and man out of love and because of love. "So it was; and God saw all that he made, and it was very good." (Genesis 1:31) Out of love God has not created man only with what he is, with his then divine nature. Had things been such, he would have been only "an obedient automation". Man was also created with possibility to become what he wanted. He was given free will to make decisions beyond his nature. He can, if he wants, separate from God and so choose sin.

"That is why God created in the garden of Eden the tree by which he would give a chance to man to express his free will: "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.'" (Genesis 2:16-17)

Eve decided to act independently of God's commandments. God has "thoughts good, not evil", but she did not want to believe him anymore. She indulged in the feeling of doubt in His love and so chose sin.

When she tasted the forbidden fruit, a strange excitement passed through her body. On her face a happy smile could be seen. As if eternity and all the knowledge were in her. The Lord God said: "The man has now become like one of us." (Genesis 3:22).

The question is being imposed: "Why is the sin that Eve made up her mind to become like God? Should not we all be inclined towards that?"

We should be similar to God, to His character of love, goodness and justice. Our ancestors Adam and Eve were made in God's image. The love was a link which connected Creator God with His creatures. But, as many religious people of today, Eve wanted to become like God regarding attributes which were exclusively Godly and which are senseless for the beings created in time and space.

(What would we, for instance, say for one cow which is burdened by the wish to get wings for flying and ability to solve math problems?! We would conclude that it certainly is not normal because it already has its place under the Sun, where it has grass to eat, gives milk, etc. and so fulfills anticipated meaning for its existence.)

Eve felt divinely. However, trying to equate herself with God in the attributes in which she had not been similar to Him before, she lost those in which she was. Her life, defined by time and space, also lost all sense. She had not a part of love anymore. Since she did not anymore fulfill the predicted sense of her existence, since she did not serve anymore anybody and anything, she found herself under the judgment of God's justice.

All that is created has one and only purpose of its existence, and that is to serve. All serve something.

Let us take, as an example a flower: with its nectar it feeds insects, releases oxygen necessary to the living world, and by its pleasant odor makes the beings happy in its surroundings. Now are you or me a greater blessing to this world than a simple and modest flower? In contrast to the flower, we are expected to give much more - to love. To serve with motives of true, unselfish love means to fulfill the predicted sense of our existence. If we discard the principle of love, then we discard the only possible reason for our existence.

The spirit of self-sufficiency and independence is a spirit of pride. Such a spirit opposes the spirit of love.

An organism functions as long as its cells and limbs serve one another. When a cell or a limb begins to act each for itself, then they separate from the whole system and prescribe their death sentence themselves, for they are themselves also dependent on the whole organism. Similarly, man created to live and act in time and space also loses the sense of life when he is motivated by pride. He does not recognize his place under the Sun, he is bothered by the dependence which he feels because he physically depends on the surroundings and spiritually upon God. He feels his body as a "prison of the soul" and wishes to escape to some other dimension beyond time and space. Instead of understanding that his spirit is making him unsuitable for life, he concludes that the problem is in life conditions, not in his pride spirit. All sorts of behavior defined by time and space act in him as if in slavery and form; as slavery it demands from him to love, but he himself has not the contents which he could give to the form.

All that is hidden in time and space is a form which reveals the contents of love and so praises God, either by its existence or, if it does not, then it really has not got a reason for existence.

By his fall into sin man lost his Godly image: inclination towards God by his nature and inborn immortality. Trying to realize the similarity with God regarding the characteristics by which he was not similar to Him, he lost the characteristics by which he was similar to God. Man became sinful and mortal. In order not to be immortalized with his disfigured nature, the access to the tree of life was denied for the sinner.

"Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever' therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life." (Genesis 3:22-24)