A TALE FOR THE TIMES
Once, there lived two separate—but equally wealthy and influential—families. Each had a single child, and both children were born with severe developmental challenges. By coincidence alone, these children, a boy and a girl of similar age, were eventually placed in the same mental institution when their families could no longer manage their care.
Inside that facility, the two met. Despite their struggles, they found comfort in each other and, in time, affection deepened into love. They dreamed of fleeing what they saw as a prison and building a life together far beyond its walls.
Fate took a strange turn: within days of each other, both became the sole inheritors of their families’ immense fortunes. Suddenly armed with more money than some nations, they demanded release, declaring their intention to marry and live freely.
But the world outside was not kind. Unable to understand or accommodate their conditions, society treated them harshly. In return, the couple came to see the world as twisted and themselves as the only truly sane ones. Their delusions strengthened, warping their judgment.
Eventually, they decided they wanted children. Determined to shield them from what they perceived as a corrupt and dangerous world, they used their wealth to construct a vast, isolated compound—forty acres entirely cut off from civilization. Within a year, they welcomed a baby girl and a boy.
To their alarm, both children were born perfectly healthy, with none of their parents’ impairments. Fearing their children would grow into the same kind of people they distrusted beyond the compound walls, the parents raised them in complete isolation. The children’s world began and ended at the surrounding walls; to them, those walls marked the edge of the earth. Their needs were met, and within their enclosure, they lived simple, peaceful lives—under one unbreakable rule: never question their parents’ authority.
Only one outsider knew the truth.
While searching for land to build their hidden sanctuary, the couple had unknowingly consulted a real-estate advisor who happened to be the mother’s uncle. Aware of their limitations—and deeply worried for the children he suspected would someday be born—he secretly tracked the development of the compound and kept quiet watch from afar. Knowing the parents’ quick tempers and their ability to cause him ruin, he observed carefully, always out of sight, but motivated by love and concern.
When the children grew old enough to understand, the uncle created a covert method of communicating with them. After their initial shock at learning an entire outside world existed, they slowly came to understand that their lives had been carefully constructed illusions. But out of fear—and obedience to the one rule—they kept their discoveries hidden.
Eventually, the parents sensed something was wrong. After a period of covert investigation, they uncovered the betrayal.
Their first retaliation was against the uncle. They used their influence to have him fired and exiled far away, warning him never to approach them again.
Then they turned their focus on the children.
For breaking the sacred rule—by listening to stories that challenged their authority—the parents cast them out of the compound entirely, forcing them into a world they had never been prepared for. Before closing the gates, they told their children that the only way to return home would be to prove their loyalty and convince their parents they were deserving of love again.
Before proceeding any further, answer the question below:
Who, if anyone, acted unjustly in this story?
After answering the question above, consider these points:
Now, consider the parallels between this story and the foundational Biblical creation story, specifically the tale of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Note that this is the foundational story upon which the whole of scripture is built upon. It is the “original sin” of the first man and woman that calls for the suffering of Christ on the cross and the call for us all to accept this redemption in order to save us from an eternity separated from God. As a brief refresher here is a summary:
Adam and Eve, according to Genesis, were the first humans created by God and placed in the Garden of Eden, where they were allowed to eat from any tree except the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Tempted by the serpent, they ate the forbidden fruit, became aware of their nakedness, and hid from God. As a consequence, God cursed the serpent, increased Eve’s pain in childbirth, and told Adam he would survive only through hard labor. He then banished them from Eden and stationed cherubim with a flaming sword to block the way back to the tree of life. After their expulsion, Adam and Eve began life in the outside world, working the ground for survival; they had children, beginning with Cain and Abel, and continued aging until death. Their story outside the garden is essentially one of ordinary human hardship, family, and mortality.
Do you feel differently about the story now?
If you accept the Biblical narrative as truth, then looking at things from the children’s perspective, what is the difference in the two stories?
Do you see the uncle’s actions as something evil?
Do you agree with the parent’s decision to withhold knowledge and even further punish them for taking in knowledge? What about the expectation that the accountability in their relationship is now based on them being able to use discernment when discernment was the very thing that was withheld from them?
Who was acting more empathetically towards the children, the parents or the uncle?
If the uncle had never communicated the truth to the children, and they lived their entire lives in complete ignorance of their surrounding reality, would you see this as a blessing or a curse?
What assumptions, if any, need to be made in order to defend the righteous position of the Biblical narrative?
Do you believe that the world is a starkly black and white place with clearly defined lines between good and evil? Or are there degrees of both good and evil? Is it possible to know what “goodness” even is unless there is an experience of what evil is?
And last question, but this is only for those willing to genuinely take the question from an objective point of view: If you believe that evil exists in the form of a devil character such as Satan, what would be the most devious and deceptive manner in which he could trick the masses into believing he was God and worshipping him instead? (Remember according to the Biblical stories, Lucifer’s sin was wanting to be like God, so this would be his motivating objective) If you reversed the characters in the Genesis story, would it read any differently?
