His was the essential insight. We don't really know. Where a thousand years ago we had certainty, we have uncertainty. Where a thousand years ago we had duty, we have options. Where a thousand years ago we had a higher authority to obey, we are the higher authority, we ourselves, with the burden of making our own choices.
Freedom is a new, scary condition for the human animal.
Stealing its template from Heaven was a Promethean act, perhaps the most audacious thing humankind has done in the past thousand years. Our task for the next millennium is to learn how to use it.