Before knowledge of good and evil, why was it wrong to disobey God ?

Question

Before they ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, Adam and Eve did not know right from wrong. Defying God, therefore, was not wrong....why punish them ?

Answer 1

Indeed.

If you really think about it they were basically children in adult bodies. The were completely naive and knew only what God had programmed them to know.

The story of original sin is utterly stupid from beginning to end. The human equivalent is to leave a child in the eating area of the mall by himself with a table full of candy and desert items. You tell the child they must not eat any of the lovely food on the table. Then when you are gone a man dressed as Santa comes up to them and tells them it is okay to eat the candy.

The child eats the candy and when the parents return they shout at the child and then put the child in an orphanage.

We are taught that God is this father figure who loves us all, but the way He treated Adam and Eve who are effectively His first 'children' is patently absurd and cruel. Not to mention the fact He supposedly punished every human that came afterwards too.

Answer 2

It is impossible to disobey God; this is a misunderstanding of the text in question.

The story of the knowledge of good and evil is metaphoric in nature and it refers to judgment. Before the fall everything was known to have come from God so all of it was know to be good. Judgment or the knowledge of good and evil was the start of our discontent. It was where we started to put Gods gifts to us into categories, with some being seen as more acceptable than others did.

From that moment we were never happy because we were always striving to get something better never completely happy with what we had.

The lesson here is that the garden never actually changed at all. We only started seeing it differently.

The option to suspend judgment is available to us at any time. At any moment we can go back to the realization that everything that is given to us by God is a gift that can assist us in our spiritual growth. There is never a moment this option is not open to us.

All that is necessary is that we pass one final judgment. That is we must realize that judgment is the problem and we must stop judging if we want to return to the true reality that the garden has always been.

Answer 3

I don't view it as a punishment, I view it as a choice.

Think of it this way. Here you have this lovely planet where there is peace and happiness - all this can be yours unless you pick the mystery prize behind door number 1. By eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge you will be deciding that this is not just a paradise playground - rather it will be a place where you and your decendants can come to learn and grow and become more than they already are (which is perfect divine children of god, right).

Experience the satisfaction of a hard days work with it's earned rewards while learning the meaning of existence and all it's glory, or idle by the beach reading a book for all eternity. I think they made the right choice.

Peace!

Answer 4

Good question...
The Lord & A&E were in direct contact w/ God. They had the priveledge to audibly talk to & hearThe Lord the way A&E were able to audibly hear and speak to each other. They were willing 2b obedient to God, but when they ate the forbidden fruit...especially when the Garden of Eden was so perfectly filled w/ other fruits...they chose ( God is the Father of "Freedom of Choice") to become "like God" as Satan lyingly told Eve. So, arrogance & curiosity took over; hence, the rest is history. They were punished for disobedience. There r negative consequences for disobedience. God told them not to touch the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil. They were hardheaded; "a hard head makes a soft behind & a sore behind."

Happy Sabbath.

Answer 5

I don’t know what ‘religion’ you are, but it is important to remember that there are some things that we just won’t understand until we get to ask Jesus for ourselves, but I’ll give this one a try…

first read- Genesis 2 and 3 in the New Living Translation (its easier to understand)
for those who don’t have a bible go to: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/

now let me try to put this in perspective… when Adam and Eve were first created they were ‘childlike’ in the way they thought. I have a 2yr old cousin whom I baby-sit, she’s still too little to know if most things are ‘good or evil’, but she does know what it means to ‘obey’. When I tell her not to do something and she does it anyway, she knows that there will be consequences. The same thing happened when God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They knew enough to ‘obey’, and yet they didn’t and hence there were (and should be) consequences.
make sense?

Answer 6

For the under ages your thought is true, but for the adults, they should learn what's good or evil. In the case of Adam and Eve, God had told them not to eat that fruit before.

Answer 7

They were not punished for any consideration of right or wrong but only because they defied God, who, in turn, knew what is right or wrong and did not want either Adam or Eve or any of their successors to have any idea whatsoever regarding right or wrong.
It was a controlled experiment that failed somehow.This example must stay in every one"s mind so that no one dares to question and no one dares to defy the God or His representatives.Rather, one must believe in the "glorified heaven" or "much feared hell" and submit to the authorities without any question or grumble or else.........

Answer 8

Adam and Eve were curious and ate the apple tree from the tree. It's a part of human nature.

The punishment symbolizes the moral of the story. That's all the bible really is, a symbol of morals produced to scare children into behaving.

Answer 9

If you had children & you told them not to play in the street, would it be wrong for them to disobey you?
Since your 'command' not to play in the street was to protect them, would they suffer if they 'broke' it?
I think you know the answer to my 2 questions, don't you?
As a parent, you would have authority over your children.
In the same way, God had authority over Adam & Eve, because he created them. When they chose to violate God's command, they denied his authority, not only being disrepectful, but even showing that they did not want God's superior guidance & direction.
They did not need the "knowledge of good & evil" to know that they should obey God.
They knew that they were doing exactly what God had told them not to do. By eating the fruit, they deliberately disobeyed a simple and reasonable command. They showed contempt for God (as their heavenly Father) & for his authority.
Their disrespect for God (their Creator) could not be excused by saying they did not have "knowledge of food & evil."
So, yes, it WAS wrong, & they knew it was wrong. They had been warned.
Here's a thought for you;
Why do you speak up for them, when their decision has caused (us) so much pain & suffering? Their sin is the reason we grow old, get sick, & die. Their deliberate choice (to obey satan, instead of God) is the reason for ALL of the problems in our the world today. By their sin, they choose to live without God & his guiding direction.
Really, wouldn't we be better off then, if they had obeyed God?

Answer 10

The answer is simple: because it broke the convenant of trust. Imagine you have been called out of nothing into full consciousness - full adult consciousness - like Adam and Eve were. You are perfect, life is a joy to you ... every smell, every breath, every sight is pure joy. You have a mate and woman that is perfect for you: you know it every time you look at her, and her looks make you feel like radiant sunshine. Filled with this constant bliss, imagine standing before Your Creator. You are 100% clear and certain about who This Person is. He gave you all this. He made you and formed you.

What a GREAT GREAT TRUST you must have felt with This Person while in His presense. TOTAL trust, total care. You felt lonely and He gave you EVE! What a final affirmation of trustworthyness.

And all This Person asks of you is to NOT do ONE SINGLE action?

Duh! I don't know if it was evil - but it certainly was purely stupid.

Have you never felt the suffocating lonliness and isolation innate to our lives? Yet you once had TOTAL intimacy with Your Creator! Who would NOT know that ignorring (let's not even use the word disobey - that ignorring) Your Creator's ONE SIMPLE request would not destroy that bond of trust, closeness and intimacy? "I gave you all this, can you not give ME one simple thing?"

This is why Adam and Eve were cast "out"!!! They broke the spiritual intimacy, so the physical one was no longer appropriate.

The key to the story is God Himself. HE was THERE, and Adam and Eve chose to ignore Him. Don't look at the doctrine, look at the experience and the event and you will understand it.

Best to you ...