To Adam [the Creator] said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:17-19).
I have a theory. Think it through with me as I try to squeeze a lot of theology, philosophy, and sociology into a short space. One of the most significant aspects of man’s fall into sin was our Creator’s 
curse. Because we know that God works out all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, and because we know He loves the creature made in His image, we can believe this curse was for a beneficial purpose and was ultimately an act of love.
It is pretty obvious that the while the curse made a great impact on the natural order, nature itself did not sin. Man is fallen, not nature. Nature is cursed, but it is cursed to discipline sinful man—sending him out of the Garden where the living was easy and life perpetual into the wider world which would now resist his efforts to wrest it to his own glory, selfishly hoard it, and destroy its fruitfulness. Sinful, self-centered man having perpetual life and easy access to all the fruit of the earth was a disaster in the making; so God did two other things to protect His creation from the evil of sinful man: He closed the Garden and prevented re-entry with His 
armed angelic host, and He took away our access to the tree of life: daily sustenance that would give mankind unending life (and which, praise God, we will once again have access to according to the last chapter of the Bible) .
Here’s my theory: God said we will make our living by hard labor being reminded of our sin by facing a natural world that would in many ways be hostile to us; and we said “No way.” So immediately we put our creative powers to work to make “labor-saving” and “time saving” devices. The rest is history, as they say.
We have saved so much labor by our cleverness that we’re now destroying the earth with it: Creating chemicals that are a lethal influence in our environment. Burning fossil fuels to run our powerful engines each doing the work of hundreds or thousands of people and fouling our air, fishing out our oceans, and wiping out our forests. Creating huge machines that do the “gardening” for us and turning them over to irresponsible corporations motivated only by monetary profit, while we cocoon ourselves in our cities with purblind eyes that do not bother to see what is happening to our soil. Making appliances that keep families out of the kitchen and keep us from working side by side with those we love to make our meals and wash our dishes. And 
we leave all that and take our children to restaurant chains the purpose of which is to make money for stock holders and which waste millions of pounds of food and paper every day.
And what have we done with the labor and time saved? Where to find clues: Facebook, sports, entertainment, TV, video gaming, perpetual travel, shopping temples, and . . . .
I’m going to leave that there for now—just to keep your mental gears in motion. I’d love to have many readers of WOC take up this idea and start a good discussion on this post in the comments box. Do you think that we have become a fat and loveless culture in part because we have spurned the love of our Creator, who was wise enough to know that our avaricious nature needed the discipline of the curse that we have worked so hard to overturn? Dig into your Bibles for this one.
To be continued (with apologies to Shakespeare for snitching his title).
February 12th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Dean, your post involves so much that has happened for many years, its hard for me to grasp. The basic thrust you have made I believe to be accurate: we’ve put so much labor saving things in place that we’ve hurt ourselves and our natural places.
I think of when Europeans first came to North Carolina and found such abundant forests that they thought there was no way that they could run out of trees, so for naval stores, they cut pines, for lumber they cut any tree, and almost succeeded in clear cutting North Carolina until wiser heads prevailed. We nearly lost the Great Smokey Mountains due to lumbering.
Now we don’t have enough trees to clean all of the air pollution, so damage has been irreversibly done. They’re not about to dismantle the cities and industries to plant trees!
I too want to hear from others about how damage has been done, and more, what can be done to prevent further destruction.
Bob
February 12th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Good food for thought here, Dean. I think you’re essentially right, here. And it reminds me of the account in Genesis 11 of the Tower of Babel. Humankind left to ourselves will try to create Paradise which as you perceptively say here makes us worse off in the end. I don’t know what to make out of this. Technology driven by greed, and the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not going to have any sense of stewardship except as it relates to the bottom line.
Sad, and we need to try to speak out against it and for something better, as we aspire to that ourselves.
February 13th, 2010 at 8:30 am
Dean, You have said a mouth full. Very difficult to put quickly into words.
It would appear that the curse upon nature, is man himself.
One need only look at mining, timbering, megatropolises with concrete and asphalt coverings for miles and miles.
Not to mention, nuclear energy, and it’s deadly biproduct.
Yes it would appear untill man changes his wayward ways, nature will continue to suffer.
Steve
February 20th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Hi Dean, I just found this site through RBC.org recently and I must say I am enjoying it thoroughly! Your stand on the stewardship of man to God of HIS creation is “right on the money”! It is something that has been in my heart for a long time, but I have never seen anyone else really talk about it before, at least, on this level, and it brings my heart much joy! I am especially intrigued by this article which also mirrors what has been in my heart. I believe that the best way (and the biblical way)to live is in an agrarian lifestyle. I must admit that I haven’t myself adopted this lifestyle. But I believe it is a conviction that is growing in my heart. It seems to me that this is what God was trying to do with the Israelites when the nation was first formed. Also, if you look at the garden of Eden, is that not the way that we were designed to live? (Vegetarian style)Genesis 1:29 states: Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” I have tried to change to a vegetarian diet a couple of times, but have not been successful long term yet. I don’t know if ever will, or if I should, though scripturally it would seem that this would be the ideal lifestyle. Not that this is a law, for in the covenant with Noah,(Gen 9:1-3) he addedin verse 3:”Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything”. So, we are free to enjoy all things God has given to us. But anyway, I’m getting off into another subject entirely! My point is that it seems that an agrarian style society without the benefit of tractors,etc. is the design of the creator. This would certainly make the Amish lifestye seem to be the correct one. However, I disagree with some of their doctrinal stances. I admire the lifestyle they have adopted in many ways. But if we look at the bible as a whole, I have a hard time believing that it would be God’s will for us all to run and join them on a mass exodus from our current lifestyles. Our first and foremost responsibility is to live and preach the gospel to a dying world and it would be most impossible for me to change my lifestyle to the degree I would like without abandoning the ministry that God has given me at this point. But, should we not begin to move in that direction, to live more “green” lifestyles? And how far should we take this? Anyone else want to take this up? I would love to hear any comments on this. Thank you Dean for this site, it has blessed my heart and given me much food for thought! God bless you!
February 20th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
Timothy, you have expressed the same nagging feelings that I have about changing my lifestyle and the difficulty involved in doing that. In my mid-sixties, I find it hard to know exactly what to do and when. I certainly appreciate the Salatin Family who operate Polyface Farms. One of the biggest problems we all face is that if your spouse, children, and/or grandchildren are not on the same wavelength with you on it, it is difficult to make the transition. It has to be a family thing if you are a family person. I’d love to have one of my three sons and family do the agrarian thing and then bring grandpa (me!) into the picture when they are settled!