Practice, Virtue, Sin

While, in Genesis, there are direct references to sexual intercourse at the end of ch. 2 and the beginning of ch. 4, there is none in ch. 3.  Rather, the eating from the tree of Good and Evil described there is comparable to Prometheus' theft of fire--it renders Adam and Eve like God (lines 5 and 22), and makes them "wise" (line 6).  In other words, the alleged 'original sin' of Western Theology is not sexual intercourse, but the acquisition of Practical Wisdom.  Thus, in the appropriation of ancient Philosophy by Medieval Religion, what for Aristotle is a methodologically inferior Virtue, is transformed into the archetypal Sin.  Accordingly, Marx's exhortation to Philosophers to privilege Practice involves a defiance of that Religious tradition.  Still, because of his inattention to Practical Religion, previously discussed, he misses the deep irony of Genesis 3--it vilifies all Religious rites, including that of the reading of the passage itself.