Was Eve justified in eating of the tree of knowledge?

[Greatest I am]

Was Eve justified in eating of the tree of knowledge?

I know that most consider Eve disobeying God as what lead to the so called fall of man and some say the first sin.
First, since Satan was already cast from heaven and appeared in the garden as the talking snake, I would say that sin was already in existence before Eve ate of the tree of knowledge. Also, the evil tempting by Satan was also before she ate.
Further, the tree of knowledge contained the information of all sins and things evil so God must have known of these sins before hand. Jesus said that all one need do to sin is think about it. The thinking being more or less as bad as the sin itself.
If God is to be the epitome of all things then He would not only be the personification of good but also of evil. Perhaps this is why Christians can say that He is love while at the same time knowing that He is capable of great destruction/evil and genocide.
If Eve had not eaten of the tree of knowledge then man would be as morally bright as any of the lesser animals. This would not be good.
Without the knowledge of good and evil, it is impossible for mankind to form a moral sense.
I do not think that this would be God’s plan. To keep mankind ignorant of morals seems just to silly to contemplate.
Those who believe we fell from Eden must then believe that we are not to have moral sense. Please justify if possible.
Literal scripture says that God wanted obedience without question. As a moral leader, it is difficult to see why He would not want Eve to know, morally, why she was to follow. This would also not give her free will. Something some believe God gave us. I believe that freedom is taken, not given.
We can know that Eve did gain moral sense from the tree of knowledge because right after eating of it she hid and made to cover her nakedness.
Deuteronomy 32:4
He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
To believe that Eve fell, we would have to wonder about the above quote. If God created Satan perfect and he somehow could thwart the perfection that God built into him then one can say that that perfection was imperfect because it did not remain so. The same would apply to Eve. Perfection cannot turn to imperfection because that would mean that God Himself might some day become imperfect.
If Eve was perfect then she would have made the perfect choice. Did She?
Should man have a moral sense?
Did God want to deny us a moral sense?
Did Eve do the right thing by reaching out for it?
If the snake was under Satan’s control then why punish it instead of Satan?
As In Job, was Satan just acting as God’s loyal opposition?
Why bring Satan to Eden and pit this supernatural deceiver of all men against a young innocent Eve. She would have no chance at defending herself?
The idea of a fall in Eden just does not want to wash for me. It would show God as a trickster and one who would deny mankind a moral sense. It would also show His perfect works as not worth much if Satan and then Eve and all of us can thwart this perfect programming so easily.

Thoughts.

Regards
DL

 

[Kilgore Trout]

How would Eve even know that it was wrong to disobey god, before eating from the tree of knowledge?

 

[Kerr]

I am not sure. If I would compare it to a house, I would not eat something my host told me not to out of respect for them. But then again, without it we would not be the "higher forms of life" that we are today. I cannot consider that wrong, and would eat that fruit to keep it that way.

Note that I have not read the Bible, so I may get the facts wrong since I only go at what I snap up here and there.

 

[Greatest I am]

How would Eve even know that it was wrong to disobey god, before eating from the tree of knowledge?

She may have known. Who can say. The prize is still worth doing wrong.
It would be wronger for God to withhold the knowledge of good and evil from those who can understand the concept.

Regards
DL

 

[Greatest I am]

I am not sure. If I would compare it to a house, I would not eat something my host told me not to out of respect for them. But then again, without it we would not be the "higher forms of life" that we are today. I cannot consider that wrong, and would eat that fruit to keep it that way.

Note that I have not read the Bible, so I may get the facts wrong since I only go at what I snap up here and there.

Trust to logic. facts are often wrong.
You seem to be doing ok so far.

Regards
DL

 

[BucephalusBB]

I would say that by giving one forbidden terrain he more gave like a mission. God should not punish our curiosity, it's what we do..

 

[Sunstone]

Ironically, the question of justification, of right and wrong, of good and evil, does not even arise until after one eats of the tree. Only after one has eaten of the tree can one look at the world through the lens of ethics and ask whether something is right or wrong.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

How would Eve even know that it was wrong to disobey god, before eating from the tree of knowledge?

She may have known. Who can say. The prize is still worth doing wrong.

I'm not disagreeing with the main gist of your post - this was more of an aside. However, logically there is no way she could have known something was wrong before gaining the knowledge of right and wrong.

 

[Aquitaine]

I think the story has a bad sentiment behind it.
She was punished and all Hell broke loose purely because she tried to gain knowledge?

Do Humans not need knowledge to survive and prosper?

Finally, what kinda of message do you think that story is giving out?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Finally, what kinda of message do you think that story is giving out?

Women can't be trusted.

 

[Humanistheart]

Was Eve justified in eating of the tree of knowledge?

I know that most consider Eve disobeying God as what lead to the so called fall of man and some say the first sin.
First, since Satan was already cast from heaven and appeared in the garden as the talking snake, I would say that sin was already in existence before Eve ate of the tree of knowledge. Also, the evil tempting by Satan was also before she ate.
Further, the tree of knowledge contained the information of all sins and things evil so God must have known of these sins before hand. Jesus said that all one need do to sin is think about it. The thinking being more or less as bad as the sin itself.
If God is to be the epitome of all things then He would not only be the personification of good but also of evil. Perhaps this is why Christians can say that He is love while at the same time knowing that He is capable of great destruction/evil and genocide.
If Eve had not eaten of the tree of knowledge then man would be as morally bright as any of the lesser animals. This would not be good.
Without the knowledge of good and evil, it is impossible for mankind to form a moral sense.
I do not think that this would be God’s plan. To keep mankind ignorant of morals seems just to silly to contemplate.
Those who believe we fell from Eden must then believe that we are not to have moral sense. Please justify if possible.
Literal scripture says that God wanted obedience without question. As a moral leader, it is difficult to see why He would not want Eve to know, morally, why she was to follow. This would also not give her free will. Something some believe God gave us. I believe that freedom is taken, not given.
We can know that Eve did gain moral sense from the tree of knowledge because right after eating of it she hid and made to cover her nakedness.
Deuteronomy 32:4
He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
To believe that Eve fell, we would have to wonder about the above quote. If God created Satan perfect and he somehow could thwart the perfection that God built into him then one can say that that perfection was imperfect because it did not remain so. The same would apply to Eve. Perfection cannot turn to imperfection because that would mean that God Himself might some day become imperfect.
If Eve was perfect then she would have made the perfect choice. Did She?
Should man have a moral sense?
Did God want to deny us a moral sense?
Did Eve do the right thing by reaching out for it?
If the snake was under Satan’s control then why punish it instead of Satan?
As In Job, was Satan just acting as God’s loyal opposition?
Why bring Satan to Eden and pit this supernatural deceiver of all men against a young innocent Eve. She would have no chance at defending herself?
The idea of a fall in Eden just does not want to wash for me. It would show God as a trickster and one who would deny mankind a moral sense. It would also show His perfect works as not worth much if Satan and then Eve and all of us can thwart this perfect programming so easily.

Thoughts.

Regards
DL

Nothing about the creation stories really make sence. This is why judaism see's them as a kind of midrash, and really only christian fundamentalists take it literally now.

But in relation to the story eve was justified in eating it. There is nothing wrong about eating a peice of fruit. I've never heard an argument that would align fruit eating as an unethical act.

An then all of human kind was punished for adam and eve's "sins". What kind of moral message is that? It's okay to punish children for their parents mistakes. If your dad goes and robs a bank we're throwing you and your 2 yr old sister in jail punk!

 

[Aquitaine]

Women can't be trusted.

I guess that explains all the mysogyny in the Monotheisms then.

^_^

 

[Aquitaine]

But in relation to the story eve was justified in eating it. There is nothing wrong about eating a peice of fruit. I've never heard an argument that would align fruit eating as an unethical act.

Not only that, but all she was trying to do by eating that was learn.

 

[Greatest I am]

I think the story has a bad sentiment behind it.
She was punished and all Hell broke loose purely because she tried to gain knowledge?

Do Humans not need knowledge to survive and prosper?

Finally, what kinda of message do you think that story is giving out?

I would say that the message in Genesis is good and leads to wisdom but that the way that the Church has interpreted it does not. They are slowly changing their interpretation but are slow.

Regards
DL

 

[Aquitaine]

I would say that the message in Genesis is good and leads to wisdom but that the way that the Church has interpreted it does not. They are slowly changing their interpretation but are slow.

Regards
DL

Who possess the "correct" interpretation of Genesis, though?

 

[Greatest I am]

Nothing about the creation stories really make sence. This is why judaism see's them as a kind of midrash, and really only christian fundamentalists take it literally now.

But in relation to the story eve was justified in eating it. There is nothing wrong about eating a peice of fruit. I've never heard an argument that would align fruit eating as an unethical act.

An then all of human kind was punished for adam and eve's "sins". What kind of moral message is that? It's okay to punish children for their parents mistakes. If your dad goes and robs a bank we're throwing you and your 2 yr old sister in jail punk!

I hear you.

Regards
DL

 

[EtuMalku]

I thought the sequence was that the God told Adam not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil for surely then you will die.

The Serpent (Lucifer) points out to Eve that God is lying and you will not die if you eat of the fruit of knowledge, which she did and did not die.

The Fall represents mankind's and nature's fall into materialism. This Fall shields us from the spiritual world and opens an Abyss between Man and the Divine. The Right Hand Path of traditional Qabalah aims to restore the original harmonic relation between man and the Divine.
Lucifer-Daath, the original Serpent, represents the divine force of creation that is able to carry out the idea of creation.

Lucifer-Daath sinks down to man's level and awakens the power of creation and the sexual energy (Kundalini) in man. Thus, man can reach the knowledge which was previously only accessible to the God

An alternative theory found in the Gnostic Gospels:
-from the Gospels of Nag Hammadi: Testimonial of Truth
"the God whom most Christians worship, the God of the Hebrew Bible, is 'himself' one of the fallen angels, from whose tyranny Christ came to set human beings free. TOT (3:4-5)

- from the Reality of Rulers (Nag Hammadi)
"It is Samael and his fellow 'rulers' of the Darkness (Eph.6:12), not the true God, who formed Adam's physical body, set him to work in Paradise, "to till and cultivate it" then put him to sleep and fashioned his female partner out of his rib.

It is this God that commanded Adam not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, which could open his eyes to the Truth.
When Adam & Eve, enlightened by the feminine spiritual principle who appeared to her in the form of the Serpent and deified them.

God threw mankind into great distraction and into a life of toil, so that humankind might be occupied with worldly affairs, and might not have the opportunity of being devoted to the Holy Spirit / Higher-Self / HGA

So, here we see Gospels indicating that the Demiurge is responsible for the 'Fall' and that the Serpent (Lucifer) has offered us an alternative Path, one not offered by the God.

 

[Greatest I am]

Who possess the "correct" interpretation of Genesis, though?

Me of course. Just kidding.

You are the one that has to judge that.
It has to make logical sense to your world and God view.

I just see Genesis as a right of passage thing between all children and their homes/garden to the wisdom of the talking snake/society.

Eve is given the short end of the stick because girls mature faster than boys.

Regards
DL

 

[blackout]

If she ate from the tree because SHE saw it was good for herSelf ...then fine.
Kudos to Eve.



If she ate it simply because someone else suggested it?... meh.

 

[Mr Cheese]

Well in Gnosticism,.....eating the apple was a GOOD thing...as it revealed that "God" was not really God