The evolution of Adam - Sin and Entropy

The word "sin" is apparently an archery term and means to "miss the mark or target".

Sin and unrighteousness often has a poor connotation associated with it in our minds, perhaps because of the repeated strong language and warnings associated with it in scripture.

By APoincot - CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

If we think about sin using the archery metaphor then it is not surprising that all of us are sinners and fall short much of the time.

There are just so many more ways to miss the mark than the one and only way to hit the target. If we examine it a little closer, there are 359 degrees just on the horizontal plane, as opposed to the one degree that the target is located in. Add to that the vertical up and down of the horizontal and we start to look at extremely large numbers of possibilities beside the one marked by the target.

The Lord gives his own definition of sin early on in Genesis when speaking to Cain.

Genesis 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.

This is why we consider the world we live in now, or the fallen world that Adam and Eve were cast out into, a world of high entropy. High entropy is associated with many "degrees of freedom". There are just so many ways in this world where we can "doeth not well".

It is also interesting that the word "fallen" is applied to it or that Adam "fell". The two words imply a descent from something higher. In this case a descent from the higher more ordered state of Eden, a state of low entrophy. Entropy is associated with the natural tendency for things to descend into lesser and lesser ordered states, a measure of how things unravel over time without intervention.

If we look at the commandments its not hard to notice that many of these things all warn against behaviors that will introduce a couple more degrees of disorder into our lives and that of the society or community in which we live and interact. Subsequently even though not obeying a set of commandments seems to provide us with greater freedom, ultimately it increases the disorder around us and allows chaos into or lives.

It may be temporarily great at the lower levels of order, because there is so much freedom there, however staying at high levels of freedom, high entropy and close to chaos does have its drawbacks. All of the things accessible to more ordered states and higher levels are inaccessible.

For example, if one has just exercised their freedom to chop up and burn the wooden ladder for firewood then it is no longer possible to use that ladder to climb to otherwise inaccessible places. Unbridled freedom is not always all it is made out to be.

Adam and Eve soon found that out, their exercise of freedom led to a world of pain, suffering and hard work. Pain and suffering come to us as a natural result of entropy and hard work is required to maintain or build anything in this fallen "high entropy" world.

So to it is with us, we need to improve the level of order and organisation in or lives if we want to achieve more lofty goals.

This is the purpose of the laws of obedience and sacrificing certain levels of freedom. This is the means we have at our disposal to assist our aim, enable us to hit the mark and reach our target.

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