The story of Adam and Eve is most dominantly (in any Christian denomination, and then some) seen as the end-all argument of how mankind began. It is also often referenced when talking about how life, marriage, and the duties of any union should be delegated. This story has also been widely expanded upon in many literary works, including those of John Milton, and has been highly speculated about for its deeper meanings. The actual story spans just a few short pages, and is very brief and straight to the point when compared to the later chapters of the book of Genesis, which tend to go into a lot of detail of how mankind has expanded and divided.

The question at hand is why the story of Adam and Eve still holds strong as such an important aspect in the grand scheme of mankind's development and expansion. Also, there is the question of why this story in Genesis is so quickly skimmed over. When you consider the severity of the implications of Adam and Eve's "sin" of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the story, whether read by a believer of biblical texts or not, truly is a horrendously devastating loss for mankind.

Adam and Eve had it made when they lived in Eden. Everything was fruitful, and all forms of life were at peace with one another. There was no such thing as death; only obedience to God and managing the land. When Adam and Eve were tempted and disregarded God's orders to leave the tree of knowledge alone, the downfall that followed was catastrophic. Self-awareness, shame, and mortality were released into the world. All innocence was lost.

While most people see such a sad series of events as a betrayal of God's will, the downfall itself was a blessing in disguise.

Without death, we have no reason to appreciate the limited time we do have. Without knowledge, or self-awareness, or a sense of shame, we have no topics of conversation, nothing to debate—

in a friendly manner or otherwise. We would have no ability to form differences in opinion, no standard that distinguishes right from wrong, and nothing that makes each human truly unique.

Where a religious person would see the original sin as a curse on mankind or a story with a lesson to be learned, as a non-religious person I see the blessing in it. Life is short—

and even shorter when you don't believe in an afterlife. We have to take full advantage of the time we have. We have to make the biggest impact possible, on the most people possible, in a short period of time. It's literally all we can do.