Our first parents chose disobedience to God, as the account shows. Does it seem incredible that they would turn against God in view of all that he had done for them? It might seem incredible if we ourselves did not know of the almost unbelievable things that humans have been capable of in the past and at present. We have seen individuals turn against faithful and loving mates, children turn against parents, parents against children, often for no sound reason whatsoever. We have seen people in various nations express vicious hatred against their neighbors and fellow citizens, persecuting and even engaging in mass slaughter of them with no just cause. Usually they have been stirred up by false propaganda that incited distrust, resentment and that worked on selfish desires.

The Bible shows that the first woman, Eve, was subjected to similar propaganda from a rebellious spirit son of God. She could have resisted this, even as we today, though imperfect, can resist such poisonous propaganda. Instead, she allowed distrust of God’s love and wisdom and fairness to develop​—as if he were withholding something from mankind. She trespassed on his property, his sovereign rights, by breaking his law concerning the “tree of the knowledge of good and bad” and its fruit. Under her persuasion her husband joined her.

The outcome of our first father’s disloyalty to God was the plunging of the human family into sin and imperfection. The inescapable rule set out in God’s Word is that “God is not one to be mocked. For whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap; because he who is sowing with a view to his flesh will reap corruption from his flesh, but he who is sowing with a view to the spirit will reap everlasting life from the spirit.” (Gal. 6:7, 8) Mankind’s forefather, Adam, put fleshly desire above spiritual interests, just as today a global wave of materialism has practically drowned people’s concern for spiritual matters and God’s guidance. Adam reaped imperfection and corruption and could not avoid passing these on to his offspring as an inheritance. As God’s inspired Word states at Romans 5:12: “That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.”