Original SIn
Engraving
Théodore de Bry
Extract from the Collectiones Peregrinationum in Indiam Occidentalem
1595-1602
Collection of the Municipal Library of Grenoble
The tale of Adam and Eve is part of the Creation story in the early chapters of the Book of Genesis. Yahweh (God) first made a man, Adam, from "the dust of the ground"; He then created an earthly paradise and put the man " into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it". Adam could eat all the fruits of the garden, except from the tree of "the knowledge of good and evil". God next created a woman from one of Adam’s ribs. Tempted by the serpent, the woman plucked a piece of fruit from the tree of knowledge and tasted it; she also gave some to her husband. Then both their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked…
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These are the thumbnails and texts for this alcove. They can be printed.
Inquiry about the origin of the cosmos and life on earth are at the source of the religious experience. It is cosmic phenomena - the world of the planets and the stars, the role of the sun and the moon, the rhythm of the seasons, the mysteries of birth and death - that first lead men and women to ask questions about a divinity, whether single or multiple, who is the creator of all things.
In all three versions of historical monotheism, it is the Creation that demonstrates God’s fundamental involvement with man. Positivist philosophy and the progress of the physical and biological sciences, have called into question a naïve faith in the origin of the world as revealed in the Bible. But ultimately, scientific progress does not pose a threat to faith, and many scientists faced with the inexplicable see God as a governing principal.
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