A choice. Genesis 3.

Before too long, if you didn't read the 5x5x5 blog (here) and don't yet know it, you'll learn that I'm a Star Trek fan. Well, fan isn't quite right, but I've watched most of its incarnations, except ST:DSN, and I have an attic full of references to occurrences in the TV show and movies. And as I re-read Genesis 1-5 today, this one popped into my head.

In the movie, Star Trek VI, a Vulcan woman, Lt. Valeris, is serving on the Enterprise, presumably to one day replace Spock. There's a wonderful thread of dialog that runs through several scenes between Spock and Lt. Valeris. It centers on Spock's need to keep the Enterprise from responding to orders so that he can investigate what happened earlier that implicated Kirk and the ship in the killing of the Klingon ambassador, Sarek. (Whew, that's a lot of setup. Bear with me.) The problem is that Vulcans have a rigid adherence to the truth, which creates a dilemna. Valeris is trying to understand how Spock can participate in deception. For example,

UHURA: ... Starfleet is screaming for us to return to port.

SPOCK: Mr. Scott, any progress on repairing our warp drive?

SCOTTY: There's nothing wrong with the bloody -

SPOCK: (coughs hard.)

SCOTTY: (continuing) - could take weeks, sir.

SPOCK: Thank you, Mr. Scott. If we were to return to spacedock, the killers would surely manage to dispose of their incriminating footwear.

LT. VALERIS: A lie?

SPOCK: An error.

This thread of dialog continues through several scenes, then dies out, only to resurface near the end of the movie. Eventually, Spock deduces who was involved in the plot to kill the Klingon ambassador Sarek, and the conspirator on the Enterprise is none other than Lt. Valeris. And here's the dialog I was thinking of in conjunction with Genesis 3.

KIRK: NAMES, Lieutenant....!

UHURA: I can send a message to Starfleet Command.

LT. VALERIS: Unlikely. Enterprise has disobeyed orders and harbors two escaped convicts. All your subspace transmissions will be jammed.

KIRK: NAMES!!

LT. VALERIS: I do not remember.

SPOCK: A lie, Valeris?

LT. VALERIS: A choice. (turns her back to the crew)

This is actually a pretty cool moment in the movie, which makes it memorable. And so it came to mind in thinking about the choice that Eve, and then Adam, made in the garden. What exactly was their choice? In reading today, the answer that came to mind is that they chose disobedience. While that's not particularly profound, the enormity of that choice is remarkable. Their Creator has given them every good thing they have -- a world, responsibility, food, each other, an idyllic place to live -- life itself and His companionship. And all He desired was that they demonstrate the value of all of that (its "worth") by obeying what He commanded. This would have been their act of worship. Paul put it this way in Romans 12:1: "And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him." (NLT)

And they chose to disobey. To "not worship." Before they ever ate that fruit, they had decided that they were gods. That they were what mattered, not God -- "The woman stared at the fruit. It looked beautiful and tasty. She wanted the wisdom that it would give her, and she ate some of the fruit." (Gen 3:6 CEV)


When God returns, they're hiding because they now know they're naked. He asks Adam how he knows that he's naked. "Did you eat ...?" "Yes." "Disobedience, Adam?" "A choice."