Tree of Life

Since I was first old enough to read and comprehend the Bible from cover to cover there has always been something which upset me in Genesis. Gnosticism answers this question for me in such a way that while it makes sense, it also gives an example of the kind of simplicity which can be used to understand(and decode) the rest of the mysterious oxymoronic whims of the Bible's writers. Especially its editors and compilers.

The Tree of Life was placed in the Garden of Eden... why?

Literal/dogmatic Christians answer this question making a grand assumption. They say, "it was placed there to tempt humans to see if they were worthy of God's love." This answer worked for oh.. the first ten years of my life. After that it began to taste a bit sour. The reason is that I couldn't believe God would want to do something so vile to his own children. It's like leaving a book of matches out for a ten year old to find. Damn straight they're going to play with them!!

Adam and Eve were simple. They lived simply. They supposedly had no desires or needs beyond eating, naming animals and plants, and playing. But when Big Daddy puts a pretty tree smack in the middle of their playground and says, "Touch it and you'll die" what do you think they did? They did what any curious child would do. They circled it. Looked at it. Touched it. Trying to discern what was so special about it that their God didn't want them to know.

Gnostics' take on the Tree of Life is simple: God couldn't control what happened or what was created in Eden because it was a reflection of himself. ("I made humans in the image of myself.") Therefore the Tree of Life was created and the only thing He could do was warn his children away from it. What, he couldn't destroy it? Why not? And why wouldn't He? Answer: Eden is a reflection of what He is and therefore the Tree reflects a certain aspect of God at that age-- flawed concerning knowledge of surroundings and Himself in the grand scheme of the universe. He can't see past his own nose.

Think about it. What did the fruit do? It opened Adam and Eve's eyes to see their bodies and surroundings in new ways. God hobbled his two children with blindness. Why? For what purpose? Why would a father do such a thing to his children? This is the reason why Gnostics call the demiurge(God/Yahweh) "the arrogant one." He made humans to be a science project. He wanted someone to worship him. Then the guinea pigs got their eyes opened and saw the cage they were in. Darn! So naturally He does what any pissed off narcissist does: he threw them out of His playground. "You don't want to play right ... so go! Leave. Scram. Get out of here!"

And from then on humans have looked toward God with more fear than love.

A lighter, more humorous way to see just how out of control the demiurge's powers of creation are: look at the platypus.


What in the world was He thinking when he made that bizarre animal? A poisonous beaver/duck whose young lick it's mother's milk off its fur instead of from a teat. And whoever said all duckies were sweet, innocent little creatures should have their head examined. True story: I had my pants pulled down by a duck when I was five years old in a park because I wasn't feeding it fast enough. Evil little bastards.