Knowledge seems to be one aspect that separates man from God. The man and woman are unaware of so many aspects of life until they eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge, and then they gain greater sensitivity to the world and themselves. Michael Legaspi writes about several different interpretations of the knowledge Adam and Eve gain in eating the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. One explanation is that they have a sort of sexual awakening, which the text seems to support as the only new thing they discover after eating the fruit is that they are naked and wish to cover up. A different explanation is that the knowledge was of everything, making Adam and Eve omniscient in a similar or identical way to God. Legaspi also claims that eating, as opposed to touching or observing, indicates that man is further separated from God. Man needs food to live, making him a “dependent, embodied creature,” whereas God does not need to eat. Beyond just an act of disobedience, we can describe the fall of man as an exercise of free will that turns out poorly. It shows that the humans can make their own choices independent of God, but have the power to do bad, which God does not. I think that this act of disobedience makes Adam and Eve both more and less God-like. The are more God-like in that they are showing that they have the free will to make choices with concrete consequences, just as God can, and that they now have knowledge possibly equivalent to God’s knowledge. It deteriorates, however, because Adam and Eve are still subject to God’s power and must leave the garden as he instructs.

Genesis 1:1-2:4 is establishing God as the all-powerful and single creator of the Earth, the Heavens, and Earth’s inhabitants. From the text it seems that God alone created the Earth and the Heavens, and then created the universe to revolve around it, bringing “lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night,” (Genesis 1:14), being the moon, the stars, and the sun. Each creature is blessed by God, especially the humans that are created on the sixth day because they are made in God’s own image as the sovereign force on Earth under God. Many times, after God creates a new aspect of Earth and the universe, the text says something like, “And God saw that it was good.” This shows that God is using wisdom and good judgement to make all of His decisions, reevaluating His work and deciding it’s goodness. Over the course of six days, God creates the world that we know, and then on the seventh day, He rests. An all-powerful God should not need to rest, so it cannot mean to recover or refresh. I think it simply means that he stopped creating, because His creation was beautiful and complete. This might have been His way of stepping back and letting His creations begin life on their own without His constant guidance. God had no more need of creating new things or improving Earth and its functions because He had already made his creations perfect. God explains that He left the first two humans all the resources they would need, so it is valid for Him to step back with no further advancement.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.