Origins of the Soul: A Psychological Journey Through Genesis
What Eve and the OceanGate CEO have in common
Introduction to the Series
Each year, I return to the book of Genesis to reflect, question, and rediscover. Of all the books in the Bible, Genesis captivates me the most, because within its ancient stories, I find startlingly modern truths. It reveals who we are at the core, often before we even recognize it ourselves.
The psychological and spiritual insights in Genesis, particularly Chapters 1-3, I believe, are not only profound but also deeply relevant for us as Christians today. They can challenge us, shape us, and ultimately deepen our witness of Jesus to the world around us.
So come with me, let’s wrestle together with the questions, tensions, and revelations found in this foundational book. I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I invite you to join me in seeking them.
Titan
My husband and I recently watched the Netflix documentary Titan, which explores the tragic story of the OceanGate submersible that imploded under immense pressure during an expedition to view the Titanic wreck. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a sobering look into the events leading up to the fatal dive on June 18, 2023.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, a man of audacious ambition. His dream was to take paying customers to the depths of the Atlantic to witness the Titanic firsthand. He and his team had actually completed several successful dives before the final, disastrous one. But in his pursuit of innovation and recognition, Rush repeatedly ignored critical warnings from engineers, scientists, and even his own test data. To him, caution was not guidance but resistance. At one point, he even told his team he was “invulnerable and not going to die.”
He dismissed, fired, and silenced those who raised valid safety concerns. In the end, it wasn’t just a technological failure that caused the sub’s implosion; it was pride, ego, and a refusal to listen.
This, unfortunately, is a tale as old as time.
The Genesis of Deception
"When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it."
— Genesis 3:6
Here we see the first moment when someone changed their mind about what God said. Whenever we do that, when we “rethink” what God has made clear, we step into disobedience. And disobedience leads to deception.
If we no longer believe what God says is true, the question becomes: where are we getting our truth from? Where is our reasoning, our sense of right and wrong, our ideas about ourselves and the world coming from if not from God?
If you're a Christian and you’ve declared God as Lord of your life, then that means submitting to His ways, trusting that His wisdom is better than your own. But when we reject that and go our own way, the result is always destruction.
And I get it, I understand Eve. It doesn’t make much sense, logically, for a piece of fruit to carry such weight. She and Adam ate from the garden all the time, so why would this one tree be different? I imagine her curiosity. Her doubts. Maybe she thought God was being dramatic. Maybe she thought He didn’t mean it literally. Maybe it just didn’t seem logical.
But deception is never just about ignorance. It’s often about pride.
Pride tells us we know better. Pride whispers that the warnings don’t apply to us. It convinces us that we are invincible, that the rules can bend for our plans.
Playing God Comes with Risks
What’s compelling and frightening is how deception often comes packaged in the illusion of personal advantage. We think we’re making the best decision for ourselves and others, but really, we’re playing God.
Remember, Eve didn’t just eat the fruit, she shared it. She spread the deception. That’s what we do. We share our thinking, our choices, our justifications. Social media shows us how much we love sharing our lives, stories, victories, and even our pain. I mean, I’m sharing my opinion of interpretation of scripture right now! There’s something deeply human about it, and I’ll explore that more in a future post.
But surely, Eve believed she was safe. That she was invulnerable to the consequences God warned about. Why else would she be confidently disobedient?
And in that way, she’s not so different from Stockton Rush. He, too, believed he could avoid the consequences. That he could outsmart reality.
The Reckoning and Resolve
Here’s the truth: God is better. His ways are higher. Whenever we attempt to take His place, to act as our own authority, we initiate death. That death may be physical, as in the case of Titan. But more often, it is spiritual. We lose our bearings. We lose our souls.
Our pride drags us deeper into deception. And deception always presents itself as an opportunity, an advantage. For Stockton, he reportedly wanted to be remembered like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos: bold, trailblazing, and world-changing. But when truth didn’t serve that timeline or vision, he chose ego over wisdom. And that choice cost him and others their lives.
If nothing else, Titan is a chilling reminder of where unchecked pride leads. But Scripture shows us that this pattern is ancient. And it always ends the same way, loss and distance from God.
Let’s choose better. Let’s choose God’s way, even when it doesn’t make sense. Save yourself and the people around you.