True, there are no pests in Eden…

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But rats, mice, ants, termites, flies, and cockroaches must have existed in Eden; it’s just that they didn’t bother the two human occupants. These creatures got along with the primal couple. We can even picture ants playfully teasing Eve, or a rat snuggling with Adam. There was no need to exterminate the little things. Death had no place in Eden.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...