Am I looking at this the wrong way?

Question

So in genesis, God created Adam and Eve. These two people who knew not the concept of good and evil. Our definition of someone that is not capable of knowing the difference between good or bad is labeled crazy, or insane. So you have two crazy people running around in the woods naked. Then to top it off God tells them not to eat the fruit of certain tree. Does this seem right to you? I mean I don’t know about you but I would guess two crazy naked people running around in the woods would not have the presence of mind to know what to eat let alone know that they are not supposed to eat an apple from a certain tree. I don’t know, just seem a little sadistic to put two crazy people in a situation like that and expect them to obey you. So am I to take this as God hates crazy people? Or does he hate sane people, for once they ate of the fruit they knew of right and wrong, thus becoming sane, then God boots them out of paradise.

Answer 1

I wouldn't say that made them nuts, but you have the basic gist right. They were not culpable for their action because they did not understand the concept of right and wrong, until AFTER they ate the fruit! Free-will doesn't solve this.

Answer 2

I think that you are viewing this a little skewed.

Your first definition of "crazy" and "insane" is off. A person who can't differentiate between "good" and "bad" may simply be ignorant. Young children, for example, have to be taught what is right and wrong; we don't call them crazy, just immature. A "crazy/insane" person cannot differentiate between REALITY and UNREALITY. Moral decisions may or may not factor into that ability.

Your second point seems to be that Adam and Eve were naked before the Fall. To this I say: big hairy deal! They were a married couple! There weren't any other people yet to see them! Who cares if they are together naked in the woods? There are camps all over the 50 states for entire groups of people who like to run naked in the woods! This was not a problem.

Ok, so Adam and Eve weren't insane, just ignorant of certain facts. It wasn't a problem that they were naked in the woods, because they were married! So why was it a problem for them to eat one certain fruit?

You brought up the "presence of mind" question. Perhaps they didn't have the ability to discern the difference between "this is edible" and "this is not edible".

Again, I would have to say "NO". When God created Adam, and from Adam, Eve, God made a thinking, knowledgeable, mature, imaginative couple. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were given the honor of choosing names for all the animals in creation. That takes imagination. Adam and Eve were given responsibilities: govern the earth and its creatures, and till the ground. They had a job! That takes memory and knowledge. Adam and Eve had the ability to communicate with God, each other, and the animals! Talk about mental ability! They were even given to each other as a mated pair (husband and wife) with the command to create offspring. That involves maturity.

They definately had the presence of mind.
They weren't crazy, just not omniescent.
There was nothing wrong with them being naked. They were married.

That means something else was going on, to create a problem with eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Perhaps you should return to the text, and see if you can find what you missed. God "hating" anybody certainly doesn't appear in the story.

Answer 3

So your assumption is that all of the judgments people make lead to sane behaviour.

When the bible speaks of partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you are reading what is called a metaphor. Knowledge of good and evil is a metaphoric reference to judgment. When you judge something you attempt to determine if it is acceptable or not. In effect you are deciding if it is good or evil from your point of view.

Once we were just like the animals and recognized that everything in the garden that God had given us was good. At some point we started to judge some thing as being better than others are. This set up a situation where something’s were more appealing to us than others. We started wishing for these things and were no longer happy with some of the other things in the garden.

This is what is referred to as the fall of man, or separation from God. Some references actually call this the detour into insanity. This self-induced separation from the knowledge of the perfection of god’s gifts to us was never shared by the animals. They were too smart to fall for this silly idea and were not fooled by the ideas of good and evil. For this reason they exist along side of us still experiencing the perfection of the garden. While we have excluded ourselves with our ideas of judgment. This is a truly fascinating subject that has many interesting facets. Including how to reverse the process and return to the original state. If you feel the need to discuss it further send an email.

Answer 4

Your logic, if you can call it that, is totally flawed. Why do you think they are crazy? That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It's not that they didn't know what good and bad was. It's that they had not committed any wrongs. According to your retarded logic, babies and children would be crazy too because they don't know the difference between good and evil. They had plenty of trees that they could eat from. God gave them one rule. Out of all the trees, they couldn't eat from one tree. One rule and you get to live in paradise. Does that sound sadistic? One rule! You can't follow one rule? Then you say that they became sane after they ate the fruit. No, they became sinners because the disobeyed the one rule God gave them. They were kicked out because of their disobedience, not becuase they were sane. Then you say, God hates crazy people - the conclusion to your logic. Wow, you don't know the difference between intelligence and stupidity, I guess that makes you retarded right?

Answer 5

You can't really compare two people from the beginning of time to the past centuries have passed by. It's like comparing two different worlds. How would your response be if someone invented or discovered oceanlife apples? I think anyone's curiosity could be easily fooled with the eyes.

P.S. - Everything happened according to God's design. So free will could be used today to choose Good and Evil.

Answer 6

they weren't at all crazy. they did so know the concept of good and evil. they didn't call in by that term though.

to them, "good" was "obeying God" and "bad" was "disobeying God". they knew that concept perfectly well -- and they only had one rule to follow.

does that sound unreasonable to you? Paradise -- in exchange for obeying one rule? any human today would find that a fair deal.

but they broke the one rule and they got punished for it. does that sound unreasonable either? if you had kids, and you gave your kids one rule -- don't drink my beer, or whatever -- and they broke it, wouldn't you punish them?

maybe you're saying, yes, i'd punish THEM, but not every succeeding generation. well, all i have to say is that God made paradise for Adam and Eve, and they had the opportunity to keep it for all mankind, but they blew it. and every human being since then has messed up in God's eyes in one way or another. that's why Christ came -- to give us back paradise.

so i would say, yes, you're definitely looking at this in the wrong way.

as far as running around naked goes, that doesn't have anything to do with their sanity. if you and your spouse were the only two humans on the planet, wouldn't you run around naked?

Answer 7

You have one thing correct, which after all your rhetoric thinking in become evident to me, you have done some thinking of your own. Good, God said and said it right, think until it hurts, and perhaps you did. (((((Sadistic but, not Sarcastic))))). What do you see.
To my understanding and knowledge, Adam, was first, created from nothing. thou, Adam was at least a Living energy, physically God create him physical to the perfect image of HIM, in Body Soul, mind and Spirit?., though lol.,,, Adam was God, HIM-self, God has taking many forms in this earth, thou he doesn't interfered with the process, we achieved through Jesus Christ sacrifices in the Cross. Adam Spirit steal live, and he is just like you and me, and then Adam can be his own man, free to search for his own way of living. because the physical part was God. So. read what you wrote, the two peoples who did knew nothing? about the concept? of good and ...?, God knew, that is why he didn't allow eve to come or for the matter any other woman. alone. So, in essences we can say that God create the perfect, scenario to........, go it! with Eve., did he knew that the devil will be there yes he did...., and that eve will be unable to recist...., yes he did...., are we ready to know the true.......???????? why HIM God), and not Jesus, because Jesus was pure and God, can be pure but can he sin?....., can he be Evil....., that we don't need to accept, but the important part is to have Faith and believed that everything he did and created he created perfectly...., and it doesn't matter what the Devil say..., he will be always there to try to create a bad name for God. <<<(((((((God bless you, in Jesus name Amen)))))))>>>

Answer 8

You are definitely “looking at this the wrong way”. But you are not alone!

The Genesis story pretty well parallels evolution theory. The time span does not, unless you consider that God’s “time” is not the same as we know it. His “days” should be considered as time periods (for lack of another description).

Thus God created this planet and its species, including homo sapiens, over 5 time periods. All “creatures” were created “after its kind” and able to “multiply” (procreate).

Then in the sixth time period Adam was created “after our own image”! Adam was created to live indefinitely and was given “God’s spirit”. That’s why it was fatal for him to eat from the “tree of knowledge of good and evil”. He was placed in a special environment (paradise). Gen. 2:17.

Meant to live indefinitely, Adam and Eve did not need to procreate! They had no sense or ambition of sexuality. Gen. 2:25. They were “innocent”, not "insane". (read the actual account at Genesis 2 & 3)

After eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they were sexually “activated” (Gen. 3:10,11 & 16) and God had to change His plans for them. So Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden in order to keep them away from the “tree of live” which could have sustained their lives indefinitely - Gen. 3:22-24.

They were now condemned to live their lives and procreate like the “creatures” (Neanderthals & Co.) created before them and destined to die like them.

Answer 9

well according to u, there is no concept of sin, or bad or good, how could u be insane? there is no concept of sanity or insanity!!! without sin, we wouldnt get to God, if we dont know Bad, then how do we know its Good right?

Answer 10

Wow......what are you on? And can I have some?
Seriously.....if I can do that with this question....who says they were put there with no concept of good and evil?