Quote:
Originally posted by Diogenes Of Pumpkintown:
In the Garden of Eden, God said to Adam that he could eat of the fruit of any of the trees of the Garden, except for one: The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (acutally my translation says "bad" instead of "evil" but the latter sounds more impressive  )
The Garden of Eden was a paradise on earth, without work or toil, where Adam and Eve simply wandered and ate of the fruits of the earth (And did Lord knows what else, being naked and all )
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating of the forbidden tree, to gain the knowledge of good and evil, God punished them by driving them and their descendants out of the Garden of Eden forever, and cursing they and mankind with hardship and turmoil and eating of the dust of the earth.
According to Genesis in the Bible, Adam and Eve really had gained the knowledge of Good and Evil from eating of the tree, to which they had been blind before.
This myth has long fascinated me, but i am not sure what it means. I have a theory, a somewhat unconventional one. Anybody have any thoughts they would like to share, as to why Adam and Eve should be kicked out of paradise after gaining the knowledge of good and evil?
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First, let me say that I am not a Christian, nor do I play one on TV.
This may be boring in light of all of the resulting posts, but what about the simple idea that this is an allegory (not sure of proper literary term) about taking consequences for your actions. More broadly, it is a metaphor (again not sure of term) for life, it is an invitation to LIVE. Without the ability to personally discern good from bad, we can not even get out of bed in the morning. Life is about variation, and being able to judge what is good for us vs. what is bad. Without this, admittedly totally subjective, sense of good and evil, there is no life.
Living in Bliss, without knowledge of pleasure or pain, Paradise sounds like a pretty boring place to me. :->
Hope this makes some sense to someone,
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