2006-08-23 10:10:01 · 13 answers · asked by jp2155 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
I believe it to be God's test of man's free will. Once man tasted of the fruit that was forbidden to him by God, he then knew evil. Prior to that, he knew only good.
2006-08-23 10:18:37 · answer #1 · answered by duaner87421 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This biblical tree, not to be confused with the equally biblical Tree of Life, is better called the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil", the "Tree of Knowledge of Right and Wrong" or the "Tree of Conscience" (conscience being opposed to the simpler awareness of animals). The "knowledge of Good and Evil" corresponds to the loss of innocence, after which evil things can be done knowing that they aren't good. Arguably, this is a precondition for free will, righteousness and souls worth fighting over, but it's also what makes sin possible. Christian doctrine thus connects the forbidden fruit (eaten in defiance of God) to the original sin and the need for salvation... We're very far from mere academic or scientific knowledge, aren't we?
2006-08-23 17:21:36 · answer #2 · answered by sixer 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Literally the birth of consciousness and the descent of the bicameral mind. That is the state of mind we call sentience. Lower animals know nothing of good or evil. Their's is a pragmatic existence. They know what hurts, and to avoid it. What nourishes, and to eat it. But the subtle distinctions that so confuse people, gradations of judgement and discernment, foreknowledge and fear of death, are not a property of the pure animal mind. People however seem to have this funhouse mirror of identity as opposed to awareness of the universe, and they get all flustered by making judgements based on projection, imagination and indirect knowledge. And death scares them.
To me the parable of the garden is a racial memory of going from simpler beasts to evolved beings. With the knowledge came shame and jealousy and covetousness and fear.
For further evidence I look at some of the oldest depictions of man we have, cave drawings and Egyptian heiroglyphs. In both cases we see that people often were given beastly heads. I think this represents the pre-man, more animal than angel.
I think then that the garden of eden is a parable of one of our stages of evolution.
2006-08-23 17:22:31 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Like the "fruits of one's labor," the "fruit of the knowledge of good and evil" is gaining the knowledge of the difference between right and wrong.
The allegory of the Adam and Eve story is that the two people in Paradise were asked to honor only one request. God asked them not to eat the fruit of one, single fruit tree in the Garden of Eden.
When they dishonored that request, they learned that they had wronged God, and were thus, punished.
2006-08-23 17:18:42 · answer #4 · answered by zelduh 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Michael Pollan (in "The Botany of Desire") sees this as the first episode in the drug war. He argues that the early Jewish monotheism sought to redirect human beings away from the magical content of certain plants to the spiritual nature of the god in the sky. The biblical writers could not deny that certain plants had a spiritual quality, because this knowledge had been available for perhaps thousands of years, but they could surround the magical plant world with taboos. Pollan says, "Yes, there is spiritual knowledge in nature, the new God is acknowledging, and its temptations are fierce, but I am fiercer still. Yield to it, and you will be punished."
I'm not entirely satisfied with this explanation, but it's an interesting take.
2006-08-23 18:48:14 · answer #5 · answered by keepsondancing 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It stands for obedience. God gave Adam and Eve the fruit, and the free will to eat or not to eat. Then he told them not to eat from the tree that was right in front of them. Obedience towards your father. That is all. Man God can be a jerk sometimes.
This is kind of off on a tangent, but don't you hate it when someone tastes a food or a drink, and then remarks about how terrible it tastes, and then asks you to taste the foulness for yourself? I hate people. Peace out!
2006-08-23 18:06:20 · answer #6 · answered by Matthew F 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a rose
love
the apple is a member of the rose family, knowledge,
the struggle between knowledge and love.
? maybe
mcdonalds
2006-08-23 17:15:42 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
knowledge of the sort that we were not meant to have such as Magic. advanced technology, inter dimensional and planetary travel given to us by the fallen angels in antedelluvian times of yore....
2006-08-23 17:19:57 · answer #8 · answered by Kyle Silver 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
god and the devil or a representation of the human psyche
( psychology).
2006-08-23 17:45:31 · answer #9 · answered by Confused Angel 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothing. it was used in the literal sense.
2006-08-23 17:15:54 · answer #10 · answered by Jeff M 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋