The Human Fall

Good evening, everyone. Last week, those of you who were here heard an explanation about the Principle of Creation. In that explanation, you heard about a very beautiful idea to create a world of happiness, fulfilment, peace, prosperity, and joy—all the most wonderful things that you can imagine. This world can and should be, and maybe you got very inspired. Sometimes, when you listen to that presentation, you can really go off into a dream world, imagining what the world could have been like. But then, as soon as you walk out the door, you suddenly understand this is not the reality we're living in. Just switch on the TV, go on the internet, or read a newspaper, and you see so much news about suffering, unhappiness, misery, sadness, and so on. You might wonder, why is the world like this? This evening, we have someone here for the first time to hear, so I'm starting a little further along than we normally would with this presentation. Usually, in our first presentation, we explain what the world should have been like. This evening, we begin to look at the issue of what the world is like and why it is like it is right now.

There are actually three main parts to our teaching. The first is what we call the Principle of Creation, which discusses the very question of God's existence. How can we come to understand that there is a God? Can we understand also the reason for God's creating? A lot of people might think, does God really need to create? Wasn't He fine by Himself? Couldn't He have done without us? Maybe He Himself feels the same way sometimes. This world of tragedy was something that He preordained or expected. In the first lectures, we actually look at these kinds of questions and talk about the ideal that should have been established. Think of it this way: you may be familiar with the story in Genesis about the Fall of Man. If you were to ask yourself the question, what if the Fall did not take place? What then would have emerged, and what kind of world would we have been born into? That's the kind of way we look at it in this lecture. We take a look at what actually happened, the root of the problem of conflict, and why there are such things as evil in the world.

This is what we talk about here: the Fall of Man. If I can get this thing to move forward... it seems to be stuck. Just give me a few minutes. This is one of the 'what ifs.' I had put the thing in earlier or later. So we're back in business. We're going to talk about the human Fall. I think most of you, if not all, have heard of that story—that somehow human beings fell away from the grace of God. They found themselves in a situation where they no longer lived within the realm of God's love or experienced God as a reality of their daily life. All cultures, beyond the cultures which have the Abrahamic faiths, have some kind of story, tale, or myth that speaks about some mistake or action that resulted in evil coming into this world. In Greek mythology, they talked about Pandora's box, and in other cultures, there are similar tales where someone committed a particular action that resulted in human beings losing their way or going in the wrong direction and finding evil.

Today, we can say that we basically live in hell on Earth. If you look at the world news at any time, most of the news is bad. Whether it's about the tragic earthquake in Eastern Turkey or the collapse of the Euro, which seems almost imminent, or wars in many different parts of the world that are continually going on, there has been no time in human history when there hasn't been some kind of conflict somewhere. We just came out of the 20th century, which was probably one of the most bloody centuries in human history. Some people have suggested that the number of people who died in the 20th century, when you combine the total numbers in wars and other forms of violence, is greater than the combined total of all people who have died violently in previous human histories. We think of the 20th century as a very advanced century, with the development of science and technology. We were able to harness nuclear power, break the barrier of space, and develop systems that were unimaginable even in previous centuries. Yet, in the same century that humans showed incredible ingenuity, we also showed incredible brutality, often with the same inventions. Nuclear power was used for peaceful purposes, but we also saw it destroy cities. Aerodynamic principles helped us fly around the world and feel close to people, yet those machines were used to bomb and destroy cities. Many of the very good things we've experienced in the 20th century have been overshadowed by the evil things they could do.

As we moved into the 21st century, many people felt this would be a different time, that we would probably enter an era of peace and prosperity. I remember living in Moscow when the Soviet Union collapsed, thinking this was it—finally over. The last great struggle in human history, the Soviet Union and the West, was no longer in confrontation, and the threat of nuclear annihilation was gone. But since that time, we've had terrible situations such as Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, 9/11, and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. All these tragedies have continued right into the new millennium. We have not resolved the problem of evil, and we want to take a look at this question: what is the origin of evil? Is evil there because of a particular kind of people or ideology? What is the reason we find ourselves entrapped in this problem of evil? We need to look at the human condition. Everyone has two parts: we have what we call the conscience, which is that trigger within us that reminds us, in a quiet voice, what we should or should not be doing. We also have another part of ourselves that drives us to seek after what is wrong.

If I were to ask you, what do you think is easier to do: what is right or what is wrong? What would your answer be? Don't rush now. Is it easier to do something selfish or unselfish in this world? Speaking for myself, it is far easier to be selfish because often there's instant gratification in selfish actions. To pursue goodness often takes more effort and sometimes self-denial. The way of evil is often the way of instant gratification, which is why many people, especially the younger generation, tend to be drawn in that direction, not knowing the long-term results or consequences. If we follow our conscience, we will become people of character and be able to respect ourselves because of the goodness that results from doing that. There's a statement of Christ that says you should love your neighbour as you love yourself. But what should you love about yourself? The goodness, the godliness in yourself. On the other hand, you have an evil mind that leads us to do what is wrong and ends up making us feel a lot of guilt. Just a few days ago, we saw the tragic end of Gaddafi. For many people, it wasn't a tragedy, but I'm sure in the last moments of his life, just before he was killed, he must have concluded that all his power, fame, and riches were worthless. Many people who end up in such situations must have thought that as their last living thoughts. Even they had such freedom to do what they wanted, but because of the evil they did, it was not worth it. It reminds me of the statement of Jesus: for what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? Following our conscience is the wisest choice, but not necessarily the easiest choice. The great St. Paul, who was probably the most active Christian evangelist from the early days of Christianity, admitted his own struggle. He said, 'For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.' He's talking about the common struggle that human beings have been through. Following him and even preceding him, religious people like monks and nuns have tried to guide their lives to overcome this contradictory nature within themselves. They have denied themselves the experience of a love relationship with a member of the opposite sex because they felt that was something they had to overcome. They’ve denied themselves food or comfortable sleeping conditions. The monastic way of life was a way that people lived to try to overcome what they felt were desires leading them in the wrong direction. Even the great St. Paul had this issue. We humans have to admit that we are beings with two opposing purposes. On the one hand, we desire what is right, like St. Paul, but we are often inclined to do what is wrong and live directly in contradiction.