How It All Started

Most people are familiar with, or at least have heard of, the account about the fall of the first human pair, Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden. Were they made with some intrinsic defect in the genes right from the start, a sort of design flaw that predisposed them to sin and disobedience? Their Creator, Jehovah God, whose works are all perfect, proclaimed that his crowning earthly creation was "very good." ( Genesis 1:31; Deuteronomy 32:4) As further evidence of his satisfaction with his work, he gave the first couple his blessing and instructed them to be fruitful, to fill the earth with human creatures, and to take charge of his earthly creation-hardly the actions of someone uncertain of his handiwork. - Genesis 1:28.

Regarding the creation of the first human pair, the Bible tells us: " God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God's image he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27) This does not mean that humans were made to resemble God in physical appearance, for "God is a Spirit." (John 4:24) Rather, it means that human creatures were endowed with godly qualities and a sense of morality, a conscience. (Romans 2:14, 15) They were also free moral agents, capable of weighing a matter and deciding on the action to take. However, our first parents were not left without guidelines. Rather, they were warned of the consequences of wrongdoing. (Genesis 2:17) So the evidence indicates that when Adam was faced with a moral decision, he chose to do what to him seemed expedient or advantageous at the time. He followed his wife in her wrong doing instead of considering his relationship with his Creator or the long-term affects of his action. He also tried later to shift the blame to Jehovah, saying that the wife he had provided misled him. - Genesis 3:6, 12; 1Timothy 2:14.

God's response to the sin of Adam and Eve is revealing. He did not try to correct some 'design flaw' in their genes. Rather, he carried out what he told them would be the consequences of their actions, which led to their eventual death. (Genesis 3:17-19) This early history sheds much light on the nature of human behavior."