Cursed
I’ve come to an important juncture in my exploration of “evil to the power of five.” I want to clarify that this exploration is grounded in the five basic spheres I identified as foundational to the human experience: body, mind, heart, spirit, and collective. I’ve explained and defended this fivefold framework in detail in my book Impossible, so I won’t repeat that here.
I also want to remind you that my exploration of evil is deliberately confined to the Genesis account of creation, specifically the Garden of Eden, which I see as our story of origin. In public relations, we were taught that a company’s origin story holds the key to understanding its essence, purpose, and direction. The same holds true for humanity. Once a “DNA” is established in the origin story, it shapes everything that follows. That means the Eden story—with its tree of the knowledge of good and evil—contains within it the original DNA of evil.
So far, I’ve explored how evil touches the body, mind, heart, and spirit. Now, I turn to the final sphere: the collective. In Impossible, I propose that each of these spheres has its own form of intelligence—an IQ of the body, heart, mind, and spirit. These are internal. But what about the Collective IQ—that external force made up of systems, structures, and shared experiences that surround and influence us? Yes, we live from the inside out, but we also exist within webs of power, culture, and community that shape us.
To apply this fivefold paradigm to the Garden of Eden, I must ask: Does the Garden have a “collective”? And if so, what does it look like? That’s where I paused. I had never really considered the Garden as having a collective sphere, which would imply the existence of a boundary, a gate, and something that exists outside the Garden.
And there it is:
“Then the Lord God said, ‘Now these human beings have become like one of us and have knowledge of what is good and what is bad. They must not be allowed to take fruit from the tree that gives life, eat it, and live forever.’ So the Lord God sent them out of the Garden of Eden and made them cultivate the soil from which they had been formed. Then at the east side of the garden he put living creatures and a flaming sword which turned in all directions. This was to keep anyone from coming near the tree that gives life.”
(Genesis 3:22–24)
What lies outside the Garden? A cursed world.
For Adam, the curse meant toiling over cursed ground until he returned to dust.
For Eve, it meant intensified pain in childbirth and subjection to her husband.
Even the earth itself became a place of hardship and resistance.
It is the beginning of the Collective—a sphere marred by broken systems, scarcity, pain, power struggles, and alienation.
I would consider these curses consequences of making the wrong choices - tough - but they aren't the evil. Good work, babies are not the evil.
The question now is: How does evil—externalized—take shape in the systems we now live within?
Yet even here, there is hope.
“God is a God who has not given up on His people. If He wanted to give up, He would have given up back in the Garden of Eden.”—Kirk Cameron
I also want to remind you that my exploration of evil is deliberately confined to the Genesis account of creation, specifically the Garden of Eden, which I see as our story of origin. In public relations, we were taught that a company’s origin story holds the key to understanding its essence, purpose, and direction. The same holds true for humanity. Once a “DNA” is established in the origin story, it shapes everything that follows. That means the Eden story—with its tree of the knowledge of good and evil—contains within it the original DNA of evil.
So far, I’ve explored how evil touches the body, mind, heart, and spirit. Now, I turn to the final sphere: the collective. In Impossible, I propose that each of these spheres has its own form of intelligence—an IQ of the body, heart, mind, and spirit. These are internal. But what about the Collective IQ—that external force made up of systems, structures, and shared experiences that surround and influence us? Yes, we live from the inside out, but we also exist within webs of power, culture, and community that shape us.
To apply this fivefold paradigm to the Garden of Eden, I must ask: Does the Garden have a “collective”? And if so, what does it look like? That’s where I paused. I had never really considered the Garden as having a collective sphere, which would imply the existence of a boundary, a gate, and something that exists outside the Garden.
And there it is:
“Then the Lord God said, ‘Now these human beings have become like one of us and have knowledge of what is good and what is bad. They must not be allowed to take fruit from the tree that gives life, eat it, and live forever.’ So the Lord God sent them out of the Garden of Eden and made them cultivate the soil from which they had been formed. Then at the east side of the garden he put living creatures and a flaming sword which turned in all directions. This was to keep anyone from coming near the tree that gives life.”
(Genesis 3:22–24)
What lies outside the Garden? A cursed world.
For Adam, the curse meant toiling over cursed ground until he returned to dust.
For Eve, it meant intensified pain in childbirth and subjection to her husband.
Even the earth itself became a place of hardship and resistance.
It is the beginning of the Collective—a sphere marred by broken systems, scarcity, pain, power struggles, and alienation.
I would consider these curses consequences of making the wrong choices - tough - but they aren't the evil. Good work, babies are not the evil.
The question now is: How does evil—externalized—take shape in the systems we now live within?
Yet even here, there is hope.
“God is a God who has not given up on His people. If He wanted to give up, He would have given up back in the Garden of Eden.”—Kirk Cameron
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