Deconstructing the Fall of Adam and Eve – Jonathan Pageau
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– VIDEO NOTES
Jonathan Pageau is a French-Canadian icon carver, YouTuber and public speaker on symbolism, religion and the Orthodox faith.
– LINKS
Jonathan’s channel: @JonathanPageau
– TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Origin of ‘Bless You’
06:16 Alex’s Conversation With Jordan Peterson
14:01 Alex’s Primary Issues With Genesis
26:04 The Problem With Purpose
34:27 Why is the Serpent in the Garden?
44:28 Was it Fair for Eve to Be Punished?
53:36 The Big Problem With the Creation Story
1:03:05 Could Eve Have Turned Down the Fruit?
1:09:25 The Gnostic Interpretation of Genesis
1:27:51 Jesus’s Role in Eden
1:39:42 An Alternative Version of Events
1:48:28 Why Did it Happen This Way?
1:55:32 Jonathan’s Thoughts on Alex
– CONNECT
My Website: https://www.alexoconnor.com
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The Within Reason Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/within-reason/id1458675168
– CONTACT
Business email: contact@alexoconnor.com
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@BVLCQ
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
Alex asked very logical questions that many atheists would've had. But Jonathan insisted that you must see things the way he sees things in order to understand things.
Bart Ehrman is much more down to earth and charismatic. Those episodes are the best.
@LIQUADEUS
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
Is it orthodox tradition or all a crock tradition??? because this Christian denominational theology is as airy fairy as it gets. Mary did not sin is a very foolish belief considering that the bible says that all have sinned and fallen short to the glory of God. 1:41:30
@iAdden
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
11:22 it’s comedy at this point the way these probs twist these stories to fit their narrative. His opponent? 😂😂😂 now they turn eve into his opponent?? 😂
@philskrzyn
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
It seems like this guy and Peterson would be happiest as a rock, perfectly ordered and unchanging. I would also be happier if they were I think
@susanfigueiredo8941
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
Saying bless you when someone sneezes originated with the great plague when it was an early symptom. Simple.
@ElenaAmaliaPecingina
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
Did female animals inherit the original sin, also? Giving birth is not a walk in the park for animals, either! What a load of crap and to think some dedicate their lives to studying these man made stories.
@spd5800
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
It may be true or false…the wisdom lies in that the Humanity is rooted in ☝️
@pixiedragon83
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
Human child birth is very painful because we have evolved large brains…that's literally a direct consequence of being capable of knowledge…
@pixiedragon83
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
It's actually physically very dangerous to repress a sneeze…it can literally rupture your trachea…sneeze loud and proud my friends…but please always cover your mouth and nose and wash your hands…
@NotOrdinaryInGames
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
I already had enough of Jordan Peterson's philosophy schizo babble, I will not waste my time with you doing the same.
@briankennedy2220
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
I really appreciate how Alex listens carefully to Mr. Pageau and responds with thoughtful questions and clear, respectful pushback. What I value in Mr. Pageau’s take on Adam and Eve is the rich archetypal framing—how the story speaks to the human condition rather than functioning only as literal history.
It reinforces my sense that the story was created to explain how we are in the world we’re born into. I see separation from God as part of the design of human experience: we are animals, but capable of becoming more if we loosen our grip on ego and commit to what Jesus teaches—love, compassion, and forgiveness.
The real tension for me comes when a human-written story is treated as if it were written directly by God. I also reject interpretations of Adam and Eve that justify gender separation or hierarchy, especially given how harmfully those readings have been used for centuries.
Thanks to Alex for taking on these deeply textured topics.
@isaacmarch2730
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
11:14:00 the consequences of gnosticism leads to a caste system? The belief that everything above a level is good and everything below that is bad? Because Christianity doesn't do that? Christianity doesn't say that a man is above a woman? Holy Pope hat Batman, that's a lot of cope.
@jensonhess5472
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
Can someone explain to me what he means by "Sin cant enter the world through sin…You have to sin to bring it about" not fully grasping this
@robinduffy6690
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
Ancient stuctures of thought have heaven involved with spirit in breath and
ruductionists don't know why they do things that are theologicaly sticky help is fragmentary,
Eve as the opponent is not out side Adam or establishes herself with Peter as helper to Satan with a relation to the text !!! WTF ???
@benjamindeh873
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
James's explanation: 1+1 = 2. But your story says that 1+1=76…Why?
Other guy: Babbles for half an hour referring to everything except numbers, "and you see maybe 1 means 6 because if you twist it and bend it and turn it it can become a 6, and if you do the same thing with the other 1 and twist it and bend it into a 7 it might loook like an smaller seven!…And then if you put them together next to the other instead of adding them up…But oh wait! Actually! you can use the adding up sign and slice it into two…or use each line, to extend both ONE's and actually shape a MOSTLY 7 looking thing and a MOSTLY 6 looking thing…."…3 more hours of nonsensical useless babbling "And then if the root square of a pineapple is 8, just imagine it! Because you see pineapples grow in the ground so of course they are related to Hell! And 8 is a hellish number because well its after 6 and you know 666…one six,..then you add 2 sixes more than thats 8!…
I am less than 1 hour into this debate between an intelligent person, and a crazy person who has lost all grasp in reality…and I cant anymore. Checking out.
@nomanshigh3058
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
Too much for my tiny brain just sound like copious copium to me.
@Catdog2727
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
That soul/bless you thing was from an episode of the Simpsons lol
@cwisteenor2394
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
This was very interesting. I feel like it almost but didn't quite get to the question of does this story paint God as negligent and if so what does that mean for people deciding whether to worship a God who was potentially negligent in warning/protecting his creation then punishing them for choices affected by his lack of protection/warning
@judegraham463
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
I was brought up a Catholic and always took the story of Adam and Eve and the garden of Eden as an allegory. Eve was offered to eat the fruit from the 'tree of life' giving her the ability to see herself, to self reflect, and therefor distinguish between good and bad, which was the very thing that made human beings different from all the other animals in the garden of Eden; the one animal with a 'soul'. But with this it also gave all Adam and Eve's lineage, off spring, the weight of this knowledge, the pain of knowing life is finite and that we will die, and with this the love for our fellow human beings, but also the temptation to be self-centred. With this we were also given the promise of eternal life as long as our sins didn't bare down with too much weight upon us. So basically, the eating of the apple was that point where human beings gained a conscience, where we were able to draw the distinction between good and bad.
@LucdRealm
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
What a test of patience this was..
@malachiwonder6800
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
I feel like Pageau kind of addresses important side issues with Gnosticism while only vaguely alluding to the main issue. In my opinion the core argument should just be that, from a "problem of evil/problem of good" perspective, the snake is to the God of Genesis as the demiurge is to Gnostic God. If the Gnostic God is in fact a capital G God, anything you can blame the God of Genesis for you can also blame the Gnostic God for.
@malachiwonder6800
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
I don't think Pageau thinks there is an individual named Adam who did all of these things in the sense that, say, Ken Ham believes that. There isn't any third separate being (a literal Adam) to be blamed. You (and I) are Adam, and so the question "why did God make Adam like this" is just "why did God make me like this", and "like this" includes free will (which is nothing more nor less than the ability to be a fully separate being from God).
@malachiwonder6800
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
"Garden of Eden minus serpent", if we take Jonathan's understanding of the serpent, implies, roughly, "no chaos, , fringe, or edge". If things have no edge, there are no separate things, and then you do not have a world in any normal sense.
@malachiwonder6800
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
The Hebrew word Jonathan was appealing to was "neged", which is the part of the phrase AFTER the part referring to help (which is ʿezer) and the part meaning like (ke) the full phrase is ʿezer ke-negdo
@Mr.Calinaya
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!
@ukaszstrzelecki9157
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
Few minutes in and I learned there is a meaning to farting. Wow
@Haley_Halo
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
32:59 You cannot rely on other books in order to understand the one in front of you. (Technically manuscripts but the point stands). He's doing this to create a cohesion by reading things into the narrative that weren't originally there and claiming they were the whole time. While I vibe with the framing of what death means, I don't agree that sin=death in the sense that that is what the scribes intended. Know what answer does make sense within the manuscript? God originally only forbade the fruit of knowledge, but not the fruit of eternal life. By eating the fruit of knowledge God cut off their ability to access eternal life. In other words, it doesn't mean instant death but eventual death due to losing access to the fruit of eternal life. "You can have your cake or eat it but not both" type situation.
@kevinmartin2419
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
This guy single handily deconstructed me 😂
@celestialreadss
February 17, 2026 at 10:34 pm
Can someone please summarise and put into point form all of Jonathan's responses and points for me. 😭
Comments are closed.