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Men also rejects a literal – Antiochene – interpretation of the Fall. Such
an interpretation leads to a reliance on biological inheritance to explain its
effects, suggesting to Men that external law is more powerful than God’s
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justice . This view stands in marked contrast to the Augustinian view of
original sin, but regrettably, Men does not develop this argument in detail. He
makes a second objection on the basis that a literal interpretation would
require death and the entropic processes of the universe to result from the sin
of two persons. Apart from its apparent opposition to the observed laws of
science, such a view would involve the morally intolerant position of according
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almost universal power over creation to Adam and Eve . Behind this objection
is a concern that in avoiding Manichaean, the literal interpretation leads to
conferring demiurgic status on Adam and Eve, thus defeating its own intended
purpose.
The second of these two objections to a literal interpretation of the Fall,
will be discussed further in part 3, as will Men’s understanding of ‘vsechelovek’
and the controversy around his interpretation of Gregory of Nyssa.

III. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL
At the Fall, Adam was on the one hand separated from nature, yet in another
sense could not be removed from it. This problematisation of the relation of
humans to their surroundings caused disharmony in human psychology and
chaos in the human soul. Nonetheless, behind this separation between the
human and the natural world lies a deeper contradiction. Because of the spirit
that supplies the human quality that means we can say ‘created in the image
and likeness of God’, in rejecting God the human ‘cuts him/herself off from the
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very source of life, from the spiritual source of life’ .
Due to this qualitative difference, ‘it is not possible for the human... to
return to the state of an animal. The human always becomes worse than an
animal. It is impossible to become a peaceful beast. A movement back in
evolution, in the intentions of God, is not allowed for. And when it appears it is
always a movement down and only down’. As Men tells us in his presentation
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The Mystery of Evil , the human can lower himself further than an animal. We
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13 Men: Isagogics, p130
14 Men: Magicism and Monotheism Appendix 8 Part 5
15 Men: About Good and Evil. (O dobre I zle)
16 Men: About Good and Evil. (O dobre I zle)
17 Men: The Mystery of Evil (Taina Zla) can be seen at www.youtube.com

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