Garden of Eden

The Christian explanation of Earthly origins begins with a great deity, God, forming all aspects of the world in six days and resting on the seventh day. He then creates man by breathing life into dust. After allowing "Adam", this first man, to live among his creations, God creates a woman from the rib bone of Adam to be his equal partner. He then sets them in the Garden of Eden and gives them one commandment- not to eat the fruit of one specific tree. With the temptation of juicy fruit and encouragement of an evil serpent, they give in to their weakness and eat fruit from the tree. As a result, God punishes them in a multitude of ways and deems humans sinful. 

Some Christians interpret this story with the literal meaning of God physically sculpting the world and Adam and Eve experiencing an actual Garden of Eden. Others view this as a larger metaphor representing an evolution of the world over a long period of time with the discovery of human sin despite natural human innocence or naivety. 

I, personally, view myself as a natural sinner. I believe that I was born a sinful being and must work to overcome this and become more Christ-like by the day. I have a fairly loose interpretation of many biblical stories and believe that the story of creation, among many others, is a metaphor, instead of a literal narrative of events. 

-Elizabeth Minor