The Human Fall

The Abrahamic faiths teach that humanity fell from a primordial state of unity with God, and similar beliefs are found the world over. Christianity links the Fall with the doctrine of Original Sin, as the sin of Adam and Eve is imputed to all humanity, causing an enduring separation between humans and God which can only be remedied by Christ.
In Islam, on the other hand, Adam’s sin was his alone, and he, like all human beings, could return to a position of acceptance by submission (islam) to God. Still, the Fall brought into existence Satan, setting up for all humanity a trial which only some are able to endure.
Finally, in Judaism we find a mixture of beliefs: passages gathered in this section affirming that the fall of Adam and Eve brought a curse into the world are counterbalanced by other passages emphasizing individual responsibility and denying that we are culpable for the sins of our first ancestor.

The human fall explains the discrepancy between the cosmos’ pure origin and its present state of suffering. It is logically necessary for religions in which (1) God is the only Creator, (2) the Creation was purposed to be good, and (3) evil is regarded as real and contrary to the purpose of creation.
These postulates hold in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. They do not obtain in Buddhism, which lacks a doctrine of Creation, nor in Hinduism, which regards matter as base and a limitation to be overcome on the path to self-realization. Nevertheless, we find even in these religions speculation on a primordial fall from grace to explain the origin of evil karma. The biblical and Qur’anic accounts of the Human Fall are full of symbolism and open to varying interpretations.
The serpent—variously called Satan, Lucifer or Iblis—instigates Adam and Eve to disobey God’s commandment, often with the hint of sexual misconduct. Father Moon directly attributes the Human Fall to sexual immorality, teaching that it poisoned the potential of humans for true, godly love. Other accounts of the origin of evil that ascribe or hint at a sexual transgression are presented from Greek myth, Buddhism, Shinto and African tradition.