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Tree of Knowledge
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Jeremiah Ames
Well-Known Member
I have a tree in my yard.
It is good. It provides me with shade and beauty. It is very kind to all the birds who come to visit.
It is not evil. It’s never done anything against me or my neighbors.
All knowledge is good. People in general need more of it, but dislike the effort required to obtain it.
Knowledge can be used for evil, but that is no fault of the knowledge.
Therefore, ........
It is good. It provides me with shade and beauty. It is very kind to all the birds who come to visit.
It is not evil. It’s never done anything against me or my neighbors.
All knowledge is good. People in general need more of it, but dislike the effort required to obtain it.
Knowledge can be used for evil, but that is no fault of the knowledge.
Therefore, ........
The "knowledge" of "good and evil" is not true knowledge. It's a lens through which one views the world in terms of "good" and "bad", thus seeing flaw and living in the world of imperfection and suffering. To reject this false knowledge is to free oneself from joy and sorrow, and enter into contentment.
PureX
Veteran Member
If you are referring to the story of Adam and Eve in Eden, the tree is a symbol of longevity, and of ever-increasing effect. And this particular tree was referred to as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So that when Adam and Eve ate of it's fruit, they "took into themselves" (ingested) the belief that they possessed the right and the ability to pass judgment on all Creation, as if they were God's equals.
This was a false presumption, however, because that which God has denied us, cannot be stolen. And Adam and Eve were only fooling themselves in thinking they had done so. What they took for the judgment of good and evil was nothing more than their own self-centered desires, and frustrations, passing themselves off as "good" and "evil". What they deemed "good" was whatever complied with their own desires. And what they deemed "evil" was whatever stood in the way of their desires. And this was mankind's "original sin", according to the story. It was the sin that fueled all others. It was the sin that separated mankind from God, and from Eden, and sent mankind into the wilderness, to toil and labor his life away, forever trying to "correct" creation according to his own will and desire.
Jonathan Ainsley Bain
Logical Positivist
Yes, all knowledge can be used for good or evil.
I still reckon that it really is a 'tree' - probably marijuana
that stimulates the imagination - and also is used for healing.
Revelations 22:
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Even though I have not used marijuana in half a decade -
I still believe it is at the root of Biblical Gnosis.
i've heard its soma, or homa; which is a plant that produces ephedrine.
74x12
Well-Known Member
Yes as the tree is known by it's fruits. A good tree doesn't bear bad fruit.
In the case of the tree of knowledge it was set against the tree of Life as a counter plan to God's plan. God offered a free way to Life. Eat of the tree of Life. The serpent came and offered a new way that would bypass the tree of Life and even bypass God; making mankind equal with God so that mankind would apparently no longer need any tree of Life. This new path was so called "ascension" through "gnosis" or "enlightenment". We see this path in various religions around the world. The idea that by gaining knowledge we can become as gods. So that we are self sufficient and unneedful of God or anything God has to offer.
What satan (who was arguably the serpent) did not tell them was that he was simply regurgitating the same lie that he had originally believed. When he said in his heart "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High." He repeated this lie to them that they could through knowledge gain ascension and be as gods knowing full well that this would bring them into darkness as it had already done to him.
So, it's not that knowledge is bad itself. It's bad when it is shown as the path to salvation rather than God's free gift of Life by God's plans and not the "might" of mankind.
syo
Well-Known Member
what is good? what is evil?
No, what's good or evil is what one does with knowledge. Emotions are also neither good nor evil, but what one does with them is good or evil.
the tree of life and the tree of knowledge are one and the same tree.
Luke 11:52
“Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”
key to knowledge or key to gnosis
Psalm 1:3
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
\
Jeremiah 17:8
They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
its a symbol of the axis mundi
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Knowledge of good and evil means wisdom. Wisdom is, how one ought to proceed with any given data.
74x12
Well-Known Member
Psalms 1 is about those who thought about the Torah day and night. By so doing and by obeying the Torah they were made fruitful but only in season. However, when Jesus cursed the fig tree for not bearing fruit it wasn't in season. So, there must be a way to bear fruit in all seasons otherwise why did Jesus curse? And the Torah alone did not offer this. The new Covenant which is the holy Spirit in the people who acts as a Torah or Law from within is able to make them fruitful in all seasons. So as prophesied the desert becomes a fruitful field. It bears fruit unto eternal Life by the river of Life. This Law of liberty instead of written letter(the holy Spirit within) of the new Covenant is so much superior to the Law of the old Covenant. It makes the desert pulls of water.
The tree of Life could not be the tree of knowledge because one was forbidden the other was not. If knowledge alone saves us then Satan is saved because he knows more than us.
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love gives life. without knowledge leads to the sin of ignorance vs sin of willful intent.
every tree that will not bear good fruit will be cut down and cast into the fire.
rev 3:5-9 again mentions the name and what must be overcome.
i have the key
Skwim
Veteran Member
As much as the rocks in my driveway.
As much as the rocks in my driveway.
And what does any of this have to do with religion?
.
.
sandy whitelinger
Veteran Member
Our perception through our senses places us in a dualistic scenario. Hence good and evil. It is the nature of our existence. There is nothing in the definition of knowledge that attributes a moral reflection. Yet once we look at knowledge our understanding of it is developed by comparing opposites. The good and evil associated with it is within us.
I do not believe Adam and Eve looked at knowledge as dualities. They had no knowledge of evil. They had no understanding of the error of disobedience.
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