Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

[gunther]

Why was this tree in the middle of the garden, do you think that is significant and what was it's use in the first place? Did it have any purpose other than to test obedience?
Do you think the serpent had been eating from it, too?
Why weren't they warned about that lying serpent?

[nomad]

Interesting question. I think it is very significant that it was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The only thing God had not put into his world was evil. But he did give man the ability to know about it, and they were therefore the way evil could enter the world. And this directly addresses on the issue of the origin of morality. With no evil, there would be no need for morality. The moment our understanding of good and evil is born, morality exists.

If the serpent was Satan, or an envoy of Satan, it is fundamentally a different creature than Adam and Eve. So would the fruit have the same effect on it?

I don't know why they weren't told. That probably would have been cheating.

[Karen]

[WolfVanZandt]

Indeed, Karen.


As for why it was there, it was an excellant species for controlling ground erosion.....

[soul101]

[John Anthony]

[WolfVanZandt]

[John Anthony]

[WolfVanZandt]

[john]

Adam was but human--this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake; he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.

-- Mark Twain

[Ivory Keys]

[Leslie]

[WolfVanZandt]

[Leslie]

[WolfVanZandt]

I think that that part of the analogy works very well, for, aren't we called to be the culture that leavens the whole of humanity?