Chapter XV - Genesis
Scriptural allegory
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and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent.
and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent.
The order of this allegory – the belief that everything
springs from dust instead of from Deity – has been main-
tained in all the subsequent forms of belief. This is the
error, – that mortal man starts materially, that non‑
intelligence becomes intelligence, that mind and soul are
both right and wrong.
Higher hope
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It is well that the upper portions of the brain represent
It is well that the upper portions of the brain represent
the higher moral sentiments, as if hope were ever prophe-
sying thus: The human mind will sometime
rise above all material and physical sense, ex-
changing it for spiritual perception, and exchanging hu-
man concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man
will recognize his God-given dominion and being.
Biological inventions
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If, in the beginning, man's body originated in non‑
If, in the beginning, man's body originated in non‑
intelligent dust, and mind was afterwards put into body
by the creator, why is not this divine order
still maintained by God in perpetuating the
species? Who will say that minerals, vegetables, and
animals have a propagating property of their own?
Who dares to say either that God is in matter or that
matter exists without God? Has man sought out other
creative inventions, and so changed the method of his
Maker?
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Which institutes Life, – matter or Mind? Does Life
Which institutes Life, – matter or Mind? Does Life
begin with Mind or with matter? Is Life sustained by
matter or by Spirit? Certainly not by both, since flesh
wars against Spirit and the corporeal senses can take no
cognizance of Spirit. The mythologic theory of mate-
rial life at no point resembles the scientifically Christian
record of man as created by Mind in the image and like-
ness of God and having dominion over all the earth. Did
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God at first create one man unaided, – that is, Adam, –
God at first create one man unaided, – that is, Adam, –
but afterwards require the union of the two sexes in order
to create the rest of the human family? No! God makes
and governs all.
Progeny cursed
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All human knowledge and material sense must be
All human knowledge and material sense must be
gained from the five corporeal senses. Is this knowledge
safe, when eating its first fruits brought death?
"In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die," was the prediction in the story under consid-
eration. Adam and his progeny were cursed, not blessed;
and this indicates that the divine Spirit, or Father, con-
demns material man and remands him to dust.
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Genesis iii. 9, 10. And the Lord God [Jehovah] called
Genesis iii. 9, 10. And the Lord God [Jehovah] called
unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he
said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid,
because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Shame the effect of sin
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Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material
Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material
sense, produced the immediate fruits of fear and shame.
Ashamed before Truth, error shrank abashed
from the divine voice calling out to the cor-
poreal senses. Its summons may be thus paraphrased:
"Where art thou, man? Is Mind in matter? Is Mind
capable of error as well as of truth, of evil as well as of
good, when God is All and He is Mind and there is but
one God, hence one Mind?"
Fear comes of error
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Fear was the first manifestation of the error of mate-
Fear was the first manifestation of the error of mate-
rial sense. Thus error began and will end the dream of
matter. In the allegory the body had been
naked, and Adam knew it not; but now error
demands that mind shall see and feel through matter, the
five senses. The first impression material man had of