what do u think was the ACTUAL first sin?

one theory i like is that the garden of eden myth is an allegory for the conversion of a nomadic hunter/herder?/gatherer type culture into an agricultural society.

the Fall, the loss of innocence, in this case would perhaps be the coming of man to the understanding of the means of supporting larger groups of people in a fixed location, via agriculture, trade, etc. The reason this is likened to an expulsion from the garden of eden, an earthly paradise, is that by coming "out" of the wilderness and into small towns man first begins to encounter the many problems of living in populated areas. We must assume that when man first began building cities, he was less poorly adapted to living in them than we are today, which would make matters worse.

I suppose on the face of it, it's quite possible that the moral of the story, in a sentence, is that ignorance is bliss, regardless of whether this theory is in some sense correct.

But it would help to know in what sense you would like this question answered... if you are a faithful christian who is looking for the latest interpretation in the ongoing attempt at making a sensible and logical story out of the bible, then give it up... it's basically just a bad collaborative creative writing project in the alternative history genre. It's been though some translational wear and tear, and we've had a little bit of language drift since then.

Eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is a metaphor for judgment. Judging was what the bible called the first sin.

The first thing that someone should be considering is whether the idea of sin is actually real.

If God is supposed to be perfect how could She have made anything or anyone that wasn't.

Think about it. The idea of sin assumes certain things about God that seem highly unlikely.

All this talk about sin sounds like a bunch of nonsense to me.

First it assumes a God who is too incompetent to organize a simple educational field excursion and figure out a way to get all of the students home safely.

How likely is this that God would not be smart enough to come up with a plan for our salvation that is going to work?

It also assumes that God must have created us imperfect if we are sinners.

One might assume that God would be able to create someone perfect each and every time if he chose to. Assuming God is capable of this, then it follows logically that we must be perfect creations if we are actually creations of this perfect God.

Unless of course you are saying that God chose to create us imperfect.

If God created us imperfect then anything that may go wrong is Gods fault, not ours. This seems a bit illogical at best so I think that we need to assume that What God creates would have to be perfect.

If this is the case and Gods creations are perfect, then nothing that we can do could change what God created perfect and make it imperfect unless we think that we are more powerful than God is.

How likely is it that we the creation could be more powerful than the creator. I personally find this idea somewhat amusing, and a bit absurd.

Religion tells us that God is perfect. If this is true then it could hardly be logically for Gods creations to be considered to be anything less than perfect.

If this is the case then Nothing that we can ever do could possibly change this perfection that God willed, unless we were so powerful that our choices could override and change the will of God.

How likely is that????

Think about it.

The idea of sin is simple nonsense; a lie made up about God by religion.

Love and blessings

don

Understanding the difference between good and evil. My dog does bad things sometimes but he doesn't know what is good or bad, he is just reacting. All animals other than humans follow this mentality. In order to even classify something a sin you must first know what is bad so i would say our knowledge of evil or even of good is the original sin.

I think the first "sin" was thinking too much - eating from the tree of knowledge. You're supposed to not think too much and just obey the good book - else you're a bound-for-hell sinner. Only exception is if you get on your knees and do everything that your preacher says that Jesus would have wanted you to do. And then - maybe...just MAYBE...you might escape hell.

Disobeying God. Eating of the fruit symbolizes knowledge of evil to me.

The first word spoken was the beginning of the end. Civilization who needs it. The animals had the right idea, eat, sleep, reproduce, eat some more, sleep. No taxes, no working except for what you need to survive. One day, one idiot said "Hey buddy!" and blew the whole deal.

Disobedience

taking the bite of the forbidden fruit...in the garden of eden!!

Disobeying God

carnal knowledge.