Dion asked:
“If God is all-powerful, why didn’t He simply create a perfect world filled only with good?”
I responded:
“According to the story in Genesis, He did — the Garden of Eden. But humanity threw it away by giving in to temptation and turning away from God.”
Dion challenged:
“But why should the actions of one person determine the harsh, imperfect reality I now live in? Why couldn’t each individual be tested and judged on their own terms — rewarded or punished accordingly?”
I replied:
“Perhaps we do each get that opportunity — through religion, through belief, through our choices. That’s why people are religious; they seek that individual relationship with the divine. But maybe there’s also truth in the idea that one person’s actions affected us all — because we’re not just isolated individuals. We are interconnected. We are each other. And maybe our collective salvation will only come once we become aware enough of that connection to act on it. No more bloodshed. No more harm. Unity through mutual understanding — to the point where no person would ever again throw away paradise.”
Humanity hung Jesus on the cross. Humanity fell into temptation and lost Eden. What if humanity could learn from its past and pass that lesson down — not just individually, but collectively? Maybe then, when given the chance again, no individual would waste it — because a shared understanding of what was lost and what could be regained would be too valuable to sacrifice.
We’ve only ever known life and purpose from an individual perspective. But soon, perhaps, we’ll be able to see from a collective one. And in that comparative view, we might finally understand the reason behind all the wrongs — past, present, and maybe even future.
