Genesis for the Atheist (kudos to Alex)

I hate essays. I am thankful that what we wrote was NOT (in my mind) the (classical) form of essay. In the traditional essay, I struggle most with using and analyzing evidence and working for a voice that is not pretentious but still formal. For me, this essay was much easier. I was able to employ the style of writing that I liked, not the one that was expected of me. This, of course, meant that I exchanged previous problems for new ones. Flow and transitions in my essay became many times more difficult. Evidence too was difficult, yet somewhat changed. In many ways it was harder even. Instead of looking for evidence from an outside source I was forced to look within myself for what I believed to be the truth. I sat for hours staring at my blank computer and when I found something to write about it was obvious what it should have been the entire time – a discussion on self-knowledge and wisdom.
In finished form, I liked me essay well enough – my editing process was fairly thorough, so there were few sentences or phrases that I disliked. The parts that I was least comfortable with were the section on the great philosophers of history and my end. The first I felt was not well-developed enough. It also felt out of place in my essay, since the rest of my essay dances around direct references to anything (I talk about Genesis and the Garden of Eden but never directly say either of these things), whereas this section quotes Descartes, and calls by name upon Plato and Galileo. The end was similarly undeveloped and abrupt (I thought at least). If I could change something, I would go back to add to these sections and make them more fluid.
My essay addresses knowledge, and its ability to corrupt and confuse. Though I used the traditional stage (the Garden of Eden), I changed the point of view and its purpose. As an atheist, my idea of Genesis is quite different from how a believer might perceive it. Instead of looking to all that we have gained with knowledge I listed what we have lost. I believe that we are more easily moved by grief than we are by happiness.
I loved this essay. This project was more an expression of myself than any other personal essay that I have ever written. Using the same idea and memory to create to entirely different works was incredible as well. I wish this was what I thought of when essays are brought up. I still hate essays. This, I repeat, was not an essay.