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Baháʼí Faith

In the Baháʼí Faith, Adam is regarded as the first Manifestation of God. The Adam and Eve narrative is seen as symbolic. In Some Answered Questions, 'Abdu'l-Bahá rejects a literal reading and states that the story contains "divine mysteries and universal meanings". Adam symbolizes the "spirit of Adam", Eve symbolizes "His self", the Tree of Knowledge symbolizes "the material world", and the serpent symbolizes "attachment to the material world". The fall of Adam thus represents the way humanity became conscious of good and evil. In another sense, Adam and Eve represent God's Will and Determination, the first two of the seven stages of Divine Creative Action.