Hello, everyone. I came upon this forum just this week, and this thread inspired me to respond with testimony of my own experience and how it pertains to the topic being discussed. It is science that ultimately rekindled my faith, albeit in a very unexpected way. I understand that much of what follows will seem absurd on its face to many of you, so all I ask for is your openness to hear me out. (Also, please note that none of what follows is medical advice.)
Late last year my uncle passed from Alzheimer’s, an unspeakably cruel disease that slowly and methodically chisels away at the foundation of human cognition until there is nothing left. Watching my uncle deteriorate over the course of a decade left me with grave concern over my own potential genetic vulnerability to this disease. Through some cursory investigation into what is known about it, I discovered recently published studies that implicated the bacteria Porphyromonas gingivalis as the cause. If this sounds familiar, it is probably because this is the same bacteria historically known to cause gum disease. The name “gingivitis” featured prominently in ads for dental hygiene products during the late 80s and early 90s, though you don’t hear much about it these days. In the case of Alzheimer’s, the pathway this pathogen presumably follows into the cranium is through the gums and into the sinus cavity before finally taking up residence beneath the hippocampus. Once there, it triggers a low-level inflammation to which the immune system responds by building amyloid plaque as a sort of firewall defense.
Both my uncle and I had suffered tooth decay to varying degrees. He lost most of his, while mine have fillings throughout the top and bottom rows. My own research led me to understand that this bacteria is anaerobic and antibiotic resistant. I concluded, should this infection be present beyond the oral cavity, that the only way to kill it would be to starve it out. I had already given up my major vices about seven years ago (I was a heavy smoker and drinker for much of adulthood), but the biggest challenge remaining was to overcome my relentless craving for sweets. This past spring, I finally managed to break its grip. Within about three weeks of abstinence from any food or drink containing fructose, sucrose or artificial sweeteners, I began to experience the most life altering sequence of events. My mental clarity reached a level I had previously never known. I had suffered from what I believe to have been ADHD since early adolescence; where previously I could barely make it through a few paragraphs without forgetting what I’d just read, I now found myself able and eager to sit down and absorb a 1,200-page book that’s long been on my list. While my thoughts are still abundant, I am now fully in control of them. In addition to this, the pain from the diagnosed arthritis in my hips and lower back had completely vanished. In the subsequent weeks I’d constantly find myself flinching in anticipation of excruciating pain whenever performing certain movements, but the pain no longer arrived. All of the irrational urges that once reigned over me ebbed completely, and I suddenly found myself with a level of freedom that I hadn’t felt since early childhood.
So where do science and faith intersect in all of this? The obvious conclusion is that scientific studies led me to reclamation of my health and mental well-being for which I am thankful beyond words, but that doesn’t explain how the divine factors into the equation. This is where things are bound to become a bit controversial. I am of the conviction that we have not interpreted the lesson of Genesis correctly. To my mind, chapters one and two illustrate the evolution of the Earth and life upon it over billions of years exactly as we now understand it through empirical observation and the advancement of science, though God does not care whether you believe this or if you take literally that it all happened over the course of a week. It is His way of saying, “long story short,” before delivering the consequential lesson (along with a rather peculiar test of logic) at chapter three. To understand what I’m getting at, let us take into consideration the audience for whom it was first written as our contemporary reading of scripture tends to become distorted by the lens of presentism through which we view it. The literacy rate of Biblical Canaan is estimated by some sources to have been approximately three percent, and the metric for this literacy was whether one could read and write one’s own name. This was a fledgling society, mewling and afraid, still wet with afterbirth. They couldn’t comprehend the written word, so delivering this message was dependent on an oral tradition illustrated with vivid imagery. They were likely aware that snakes did bite and that those bites did cause great hurt. They had no conception of pathogenic microbes, and if they were ever exposed to a dissected human brain ravaged by disease, they would have no idea what they were being shown. Therefore, the corruption caused by this pathogen had to be made familiar. We cannot confidently know which events illustrated throughout the Old Testament are truly historic, if any, and it wouldn’t matter regardless. The events depicted after the fall of man serve as a warning about the consequences of our disobedience. Mankind’s first action after expulsion from paradise is the commission of fratricide, and things only get worse from there.
It is my belief that Genesis constitutes what I’d call the Ur Commandment. This is the “test of logic” I mentioned earlier. When faced with the knowledge that disobedience of this original order issued to us by the Lord our God resulted in our fall and with no way of knowing which specific fruit grew from the tree in the midst of the garden, wouldn’t it be prudent to abstain from all types of fruit? Our access to the garden was rescinded, yet the world that the garden occupied remains all around us.