In normative versions of the creation story, Adam and Eve at first don’t recognize Satan when they meet him in the Garden. Later, as a consequence of his actions, he is exposed.   But then, curiously, when expelled from the Garden, they again don’t recognize him.

I think that is a signal that we are supposed to consider Adam and Eve’s after-garden experience as part of a pattern that repeats itself, the pattern that first took place in the Garden.

Here’s one interesting parallel between the Garden and the after-Garden. It’s a mirror-image parallel. The same pattern, but flipped

Adam and Eve are under the control of a deity, in a setting that reflects the deity’s ideas of peace and order. The opposing deity and/or his agents appear to Adam and Eve, who don’t recognize the deity and/or his agents. The opposing deity and/or his agents don’t fully identify themselves. The opposing deity and/or his agents are appear to be acting without the full knowledge of the controlling deity. The opposing deity and/or his agents impart knowledge that the reigning deity was keeping from Adam and Eve and in the process identify themselves. As a result, Adam and Eve and the reigning deity are parted. Either Adam and Eve are cast out (as in the Garden) or the deity is cast out (as in the after-Garden).

In the wars of the Gods, free speech and secrecy–information, in other words–are the weapons.

Funny how we think of information as this neutral, benign stuff, when our foundational myths describe it as supernaturally potent.

The marketplace of ideas is bestrewn with the casualties of men.