Eve and Existence

“…he could expect nothing from those pupils who accepted his doctrine passively, but that he could expect something from those who occasionally dared to oppose him. The former group… could not ascend to the level of individuals” (Jorge Luis Borges, “The Circular Ruins” 58-59).

This story shows a man who dreams up the existence of another man. With meticulously careful constructing, he finally makes one worthy enough for existence (even if it’s only in his dreams). But he cannot bring to “life” a being that is passive, or completely obedient. Only in doing something original, different than the generation before us, can we progress, move forward into a stage of being an individual. 

Back to the very beginning of human history: Adam and Eve could not live in a state of ignorance forever. They obeyed every word of doctrine that was given to them. The moment that they disobeyed the authority before them, is where their story—and human history—begins. They needed to eat the fruit that gave them a knowledge of good and evil, of opposition. They needed this perfection to be challenged; without it, they would not have been able to produce life themselves.

Before their “fall,” the world lived in a perfect state, but it was never progressing. Nothing could die, but nothing could become. 

Scriptures tell us that God said, “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so…righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad… wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility” (2 Nephi 2:11).

I don’t think one needs to completely disregard every order or every teaching. You just need to be able to question. To “ascend to the level of an individual,” you need to fight for the real truth, for the best answer, for the knowledge of your own.

I wonder if I fight enough for the right to exist.