The devil promised a kind of enlightenment, and in sinning, Adam and Eve’s were opened in a sense—to a firsthand knowledge of evil that only filled them with shame and guilt. On the whole, though, sin only made them stupid.

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).