Agapé vs. “The Knowledge of Good and Evil”

In the book A General Theory of Love, by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon, I found a reworking of the evolutionary development of the human brain. They described the primitive ancient base of the brain, popularly called the “reptile brain,” as the seat of those physical drives that get people into so much trouble.

When I read about that, I remembered once reading an interpretation of Genesis 3:1-7. In that ancient story of the origin of “the knowledge of good and evil,” such ‘knowledge’ happened by being tempted by a lie coming from a reptile. The interpretation was given in terms of the human brain: the false dualism of “good and evil” coming from our “reptile brain.”

Such dualism is portrayed as originating from the great deception caused by listening to our “reptile brain” instead of to the advanced brain of the neocortex. That false way of perceiving life makes humans think that they can take into themselves (“eat the fruit”) some way of knowing that there can be such opposition of “good” and “evil.” It’s a false way of seeing life split up, such that life can be separated into “good” and “evil.” Such a deceptive way of seeing builds up the possibly for life to be no longer a unified whole (where whatever happens just happens), but can be somehow thought of as divided into something that is good and something that is evil.

So what is portrayed, in that ancient story of anthropological origins, enters historically as the deception that developed near the origin of civilization is based on turning away from the unifying force of Life in order to start believing in the separation of good and evil. (In other words, the Great Lie, that there somehow is good and evil, is where evil entered history and human consciousness.)

Albert Einstein once wrote: “We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for few persons nearest us. …Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature.”

The more I thought about those theories, the more I reflected on the origin of human turning away from agape. When we realize agape as the unifying spiritual power, then we can fully comprehend what happened when too many people let fear block them from receiving agape into their lives. It is the spiritual power of agape that helps people overcome the false dualism of “good and evil.” Building a worldview based on fear leads to the dualism of “good and evil,” but building a worldview based on agape leads to the unity of life and ultimate peace.

When I read Marianne Williamson quote in her book, A Return to Love, the great passage from the New Testament book, 1 John, that reads “God is agape,” I understood that she was meaning ‘agape’ whenever she used ‘love’ in a spiritual way. So I went thru her book and copied down quotes changing ‘love’ to ‘agape.’ For example, “Once we get to the point where we realize that God is agape, we understand that following God simply means following the dictates of agape. By affirming that agape is our priority in a situation, we actualize the power of God.”

There has developed tremendous pressure for people to think that they have to perceive life from fear. Such perceiving usually gets interpreted to mean we perceive without agape. So we have to unlearn all of that in order to perceive life thru the power of agape instead of perceiving life from fear. Most of us spend the developmental years of life having our brains wired to perceive ourselves as separate from all other beings, and so we have a great deal of difficulty accepting the unifying power of agape. But agape is powerful enough to overcome that “optical delusion of consciousness” if we will only open up and let it happen for us.

But that is precisely our task in life — our purpose in being.