"Evil makes us human.We learn this early in Genesis, when Adam and
Eve are cast out of Eden because they chose to do wrong. Genesis
tells us that not only ourselves but our world is a consequence of evil:
“Cursed be the ground because of you.” Finding ourselves fallen, we
cannot be at ease: “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
... Nor can we be satisfied with our achievements, for labor is our punishment.
If evil brought us to where we are, then the Western religious
tradition tells us that our essential task as individuals and communities
is to overcome the evil in our nature.We want to return to that “image
of God” that we were at creation."

Paul W. Kahn "Out of Eden"