When Bad Things Happen to Good People

In the Bible, God creates the heavens and Earth, and then He creates the creatures of Earth. He says, “Let us make Man in our image” (81). Kushner believes God is speaking to the animals, telling them that humans will be both animal-like and god-like, an in-between creation.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve disobey God and eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God banishes them from Eden, and they must henceforth struggle for their food, in anguish give birth to new humans, and grow old and die.

Adam and Eve and their descendants see the world with a new perspective. Suddenly, sexual relations, so simple for animals, are imbued with moral complexity, yet also with the potential for love, tenderness, and commitment. Childbirth is more painful for humans than for other animals, but the real pain lies yet ahead, during the years of child rearing, when parents must juggle complex situations involving their young, sometimes with unhappy outcomes.

Outside Eden, people also must work to earn their food in a process much more complex and challenging than that faced by animals. Ethical dilemmas abound in the workplace, problems other creatures don’t face.