The Truth, The Mark and the Virtuous

In this world where the seeming battle between two extremes cannot be appeased, the fluctuation of reality would heavily depend upon the status quo. The variation of truth is heavily reliant on what was first thought. Think of societal old maids that seem to be the epitome of the conservation of morals or rather and more appropriately, they who established themselves as the proprietor of standards. How many times have we heard from them the phrase “during our time” as if it is the basis for everything? More than once, I suppose. But my point is not about the conflict of the then and the now or the past and the present. More so, it is the rift between the possible and the acquired truth.

Among the firsthand accounts of the Holy Scriptures and the book of Genesis in particular is the story of Adam and Eve. It has been an acquired truth for the majority of Catholics that all human race emanated from the said couple and consequently, we acquired from them as a hereditary share, our original sin. There were times that when I come to think about it, I would almost insist that God is so unfair to let the black spell of condemnation came over into entire humanity whereas in fact, only Adam and Eve ate the fruit that causes it all. However, the entrancing idea would give force into a deeper arena, it would easily be seen that the fault of inheriting the original sin is not really the fault of God but of mere persons dwelling on this earth.

Original sin is more of a potentiality than an actuality. It is actualized and put into being not in the literary sense of the world ‘hereditary’ which connotes a garnering of innate characteristics inherited from precursors. Rather and more appropriately, it is done in a way that man acts his way out of freedom committing every level of mature sinning against God, his neighbor and the worst, himself. From this standpoint, the basis of culture is grounded. It is because through his humane freedom, man is becoming what Marcilio Ficino together with other renaissance humanists would assert, “the sovereign maker of himself.”

Looking back upon the story of Adam and Eve, it is also well-known fact that Eve bore two sons in the names of Cain and Abel. Abel is described to be the one pleasing in God’s sight. Out of jealousy, Cain killed Abel. When this has been brought into attention of God, he marked Cain with a sign so that no one would touch him in his lifetime.

Quite essentially and a ready-made answer to the question that asks if who between Cain and Abel is better is no other than Abel. But the evolution of radical thought among the people across generations has presented much deviations of thinking about the believed matter of the story.

Among those who challenged a number of people to think twice is the Nobel Price winner, Hermann Hesse in his novel, “Demian.” “Demian” presents the story of Sinclair and his confusing connection to Demian. Both of them possess an extreme difference from the rest. This separating factor is the Mark of Cain. The mark is exposed in the span of the story as a sign of bravado and strong personality. Precursor to the underlying superiority of the mark is the idea that God really favors the brave one, Cain rather than Abel. That is why God endowed the mark to Cain and his descendants, which are not merely the meek and the humble, but those who have a strong type of personality that emanates from within.

The idea is highly reminiscent of what Nietzsche is trying to point out about the real ancient notion of the virtuous and good, which includes bravery and courage. The point is that there has been a manipulation of the virtuous that has been visibly manifested in the switch of the virtuous as an argumentum ad misericordiam. This seeks to imply that those who have lesser capacities are the receivers of God’s mercy, which is not the case in the time of the ancients. This further implies the sensationalism of the les miserables, not just in money but also in spirit as well, a clear sophistry in the time of those who established the ancient notions of the virtuous.

Man has the capacity to make possible what has long lived as impossible. He has the capacity to construct myths out of mere fragments just like in the case of Abel and Cain, an everlasting battle of who really had the favor of God. It is tantamount to saying that battle between the brothers has not ended by a stab of Cain to Abel but it is continuously in progress as man thinks of how to achieve superiority through an era of novelty and of power. Our beliefs of the past would heavily be tainted by new colors behind the threshold of what has been.