Finding Ourselves and Losing God

According to the Bible, we started out with no problems about God. When he made the first people, they understood what he had given them - paradise and unbridled access to him, the Ultimate One. Sure, we didn't know a lot of things, but humanity back then saw itself as free, fulfilled, happy.

Then along came the temptor, who gave them the notion that they were actually slaves who needed liberation. "Defy him," the temptor said. "You could be as powerful as he is." At least that's what the first couple of chapters of the Bible tell us, and I haven't seen a better explanation for why all of us feel like we've lost something, that we've become disconnected from ultimate reality.

Problem is that God wasn't amused by the rebellion. He passed judgment on the first humans, and cut us off. That seems pretty vindictive, if we understand it from our viewpoint, as rebels.

So now we're stuck with competing tensions - we want our independence, but we long to find God. Is this a contradiction?