Felix culpa

What if..? The snake had not deceived the first human to eat that apple. Like animals—naked, primitive, homeless, wanderers— We would still have been only the salts of the earth in Eden. Eating all fruits except those of knowledge and life... In a garden where we do not work, but God works for us. Perhaps we would be born, but never die— A life of pleasure, untouched by pain or suffering. But why, then, is eating the apple a sin? When God fills our minds with boundless knowledge— To build spacecraft, skyscrapers, mansions with tireless passion, To conquer the earth and reach for the stars beyond. So was Satan created to shape us, diamonds in the rough? Yet made to command the symbol of God's wrath... Where sin is met with eternal suffering and pain, Where tears flood cheeks like rivers after heavy rains. Had man not eaten that apple... The earth would not hold Adam and all his offspring, both dead and living. God would not have rejoiced to see us remain like animals, Perhaps our prisms would still be unbroken, our white light never split into colors. Yet, if wisdom was truly forbidden, Why does the universe stretch wide before us? Why do our hands mold the dust into wonders, And our minds chase the secrets of the stars?