where did you find this one? I had that image in my library from a long time ago. Yes, there is suffering associated with refusing to differentiate as well. No escape from it, I'm afraid. It might even be more painful to stay put when evolution says it's time to move. Super cool to be your "teacher". Even Einstein didn't want to believe we lived in an expanding/evolving Universe so we can forgive ourselves for wanting to remain in a static unchanging culture and world! What jumped out for me is "do we really have a choice?". The Universe is evolving in its time developmental way with or without us! The Eden story is used to invoke the concept of "free will" among humans, but I think that is an obsolete interpretation, too. Andrew Cohen's "evolutionary impulse" will not be denied so it's not really a choice but an awareness that this is the case. What fascinates me is the "tug of war" between safety and security and creativity and newness which goes on inside each and every one of us every day! So much of what we do is routine, but "the tooth which nibbles at the soul", to quote Emily Dickinson, is also always there... Thanks for an evolutionary exegesis which gets away from sin, punishment, and all that other crap! Why, in your worldview, is it always EITHER/OR? (EITHER the received traditional classic Christian interpretation OR the evolutionary one?) Why not BOTH/AND? Or, at least, why not