Actually I thought it was a reference to catholicism's/christianity's theory of creationism in the story of Adam and Eve. Only instead of man eating the fruit of The Tree of Knowledge, man eats the fruit of The Tree of Chakra and gains the ability to use Chakra as he wills it while at the same time releasing a great evil upon the planet (reference to Sin). The sacrifice of a single man (Sage of 6 paths/Jesus) lessens this evil to an extent that Man can deal with it on his own.
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I saw a similarity between the two.