What do you remember about the first question in history? Can you recall why it was asked? Are you familiar with the motive behind the question? How well would you say you know the questionnaire? Did you notice HOW the question was asked? Could anything in the world have stopped that seeming question from achieving its venomous goal? Best of all, was it only a question that begged for a mere answer? Or was it a subtle means to an injurious end?

Definitely a subtle means to an injurious end, but not for the questionnaire. For him, that was all he could ever ask. But he wouldn’t dare come out plain to say; “hey, I hate that you’re up there and I’m down here. Let’s trade places so I can get up there and you get down here.” Of course, he wouldn’t have gotten what he wanted by plainly stating out what he wanted. So he had to ask: “Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”

By vaguely presenting his inquiry, he drew her in, making her comfortable to have a forbidden discussion. Oblivious of the trap question, she fell for it, saying: “We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden except the tree in the middle of it. The day we do, we will die.” Having successfully established a rapport with her that made her open up to him, his next move was to get her stuck in his snare. So he CREATED A TEMPTATION, one she wasn’t interested in resisting.

“That's not true;” he said. “You will not die. God said that because he knows that when you eat it, you will be like Him and know what is good and what is bad.” A question for you: if you were offered the chance to be like God, would you turn it down? Don’t answer that. Don’t even think about it. That was her mistake. She gave it a thought, and that’s all he wanted her to do: “to give it a thought.” The aftermath of that thought is why you and I are in this mess today.

Talking about today, things are no different. This manner of questions are still being asked and achieving their aims daily, hourly, or even by the minute. Unlike the first question which was asked by an intangible being, and his victim who was directly born of God, the questionnaires and victims of today are humans born of humans.

HE lives around you. You see HER every day. THEY seem distant; like they couldn’t care less about YOUR messed up existence. But HE is very aware of your day-in/day-out dealings. SHE knows your weaknesses, your cravings, your wishful guilty pleasures, and lots more. With this knowledge, HE carves out a well-tailored question that promises the ultimate fulfillment of those fantasies. At that moment when you feel like the best of SCHOLARS, HE asks:

“Those moralists always telling you how to live your life, who tells them how to live theirs?” You ponder on it and hear a soft whisper from nowhere saying; “nobody.” Best case scenario, you flaunt your knowledge as the first victim did. You say something like: “God tells them.” Whatever the case, HE has soothing follow up questions for you. Could be: “why then should they tell you how to live yours?” Or, “God can talk to you too; you know?” You think about it again, and that’s it.

HE notices you reasoning his words. HE knows he's succeeded in inspiring a vulnerable moment, so he KNOCKS YOU OUT with another follow up statement: “would be sad to walk the earth without actualizing every fantasy that plays in our minds due to SOCIAL CONDITIONINGS. I mean, God gave us WILL POWER and a mind of our own. But certain people want to rob us of that privilege while keeping theirs. If you ask me, that’s crazy. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Leaving you no time to answer, she CREATES A TEMPTATION: “I just broke up with him. He wasn’t daring enough to live beyond SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS. Such a weakling!” She pauses for a little bit, leaving you time to chew on her words and get dragged into her net by them. Then she continues: “you don’t strike me like a weakling. But then, one cannot judge a book by its cover.” She gives way to silence, leaving room for you to do what she’s made you think you should do: to PROVE YOURSELF.

You could either give in straightway or hold back. Giving in straightway makes it TOO EASY for her. Holding back, however, affords her the pleasure of leading you on some more. So she does something as little as EXPRESSING DISAPPOINTMENT at your LACK OF GUTS just like the guy she dumped. She thought you’d be a better man. She was wrong. Or, was she? Your ego wouldn’t let you swallow the seeming humiliation, so YOU PROVE YOURSELF A MAN and it's GAME OVER. She wins.

I bring this to a close with the words of GOMOJA: “if thy reasoning be clouded by impure desires, then thou shall certainly fall prey and be a victim of the tempter.” Though GOMOJA portrayed the tempter as a SERPENT, it is here portrayed as MAN and WOMAN. A CLAUSE exists to this though, for knowing the peril of FALLING PREY and becoming VICTIMS of the tempter, many still DAMN THE CONSEQUENCES and opt to be HAPPY VICTIMS of the tempter today, tomorrow, and the day after.

Jezuzboi©