NOT THE TWOS PARADISE (2022)
We all have the same mother and father. We don't really know what happened to our mother, but our father apparently lived to be 930 years old… This is a highly condensed account of how the three Abrahamic religions tell the beginning of humanity—aka the story of Adam and Eve. For those intrigued: The last trace of Eve's age we find in the Bible is the birth of Seth—the third son of Adam and Eve—where Eve is said to have been 130 years old.
Needless to say, historical accuracy is not exactly the point of the story; rather, it’s about its moral, which culminates in the plucking of the apple and its immediate consequence: Eve, goaded by the devil, convinces Adam to taste the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil against God’s express command not to touch it—a transgression for which they are banished from paradise.
Ever since, paradise has remained a figure of longing. And no matter how much ideas of paradise differ between—and even within—Judaism, Christianity and Islam, they all hold one thing in common: Paradise is a place of peace. War, poverty, cancer, unrequited love—all the things that make earthly life stressful and painful are nonexistent.
Consequently, paradise is alluring even to non-believers. And in principle, they also have a chance of getting into heavenly paradise—all three “book religions” see the final decision as God's; only he or—as we prefer not to think of God in binary, let alone exclusively male terms—they can judge whether someone has led an upright life. But let’s take the USA as an example: among the 28% of the population who are non-religious, only a third (still) believes in heaven. The other 60% or so have nothing to gain. For them, only the possibility of paradise on earth remains.
Concepts of paradise become individual and fluid here. For the materialistic, it can be a private tropical island with white sandy beaches and a turquoise lagoon. For idealists, paradise could mean world peace or—like for today’s artist NOT THE TWOS (according to NME Kendrick Lamar’s new favorite artist and producer)—personal peace of mind. Let the philosophical discourse commence! 🤓
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