If the fruit of the tree of knowledge in Eden conferred the ability to determine right from wrong...?

Well your assumption is just that...your own. If you want to know what He says about it, you must leave your own views behind and read what He has written...it did not give them the ability to determine right from wrong, but was defined as "making man wise IN HIS OWN EYES", which is to question God (and you see this proved every day...even here in your own question). Moreover, no where does it say that He "made it very clear it was Wrong and Bad", He simply told them "of this tree do not eat"...Satan put more words in His mouth (which again, you can see you're doing here in this question yourself...it's an old go-to move that's hardly original) And doing so was disobedience, period. The result was then that sin entered and, as already exposed more than once, man has continued the same pattern.

Why did it matter? Because if they had not eaten that fruit, you would not continue to perpetrate the same pattern of questioning God's way because you believe you know better. That's a pretty big deal. But God made a way to rectify the situation in Christ, and restored the choice to listen to Him and heed His Truth or continue to believe your own ideas are superior. Consider carefully, for your decisions have eternal consequences whether you accept the truth of that or not.

I hope you find truth and the peace that comes only from knowing Him.

Very interesting question. I'm glad you're thinking along these lines.

This gets to the very heart of what is good, and what is evil.

It comes down to faith in the word of God.

Adam and Eve weren't punished, so much as they received the result that God said they would receive if they ate the fruit. I don't think God added any additional bad consequences--everything they received stems from the curse of death, which is the immediate result of their disobedience. Loss of access to the tree of life, pain in childbearing, difficulty obtaining food, etc. weren't stipulated up front, but are consequences of death, in some way.

In a state of innocence, Adam and Eve had no understanding of right and wrong. That's reasonable to say. What they did have was dependency on God.

We, who live after the fall, have a consciousness of good and evil. We live condemned to abide by some system of righteousness derived from rules and regulation of behavior. It's inevitable. It's interesting to note, that until God gave them a commandment (thou shalt not eat...), the devil had nothing with which to tempt them. As St. Paul declared, by revelation of the Holy Spirit, "...where there is no law, there is no transgression..." (Romans 4:15).

Sin is a mystery. I can't claim to completely understand it. But I have come to believe that it is, at the most basic level, a matter of mistaken identity.

Yours in Christ, Nick

in case you're taking the story at face value(which you incredibly shouldn't), then that is not probably approximately doing sturdy or doing evil. that is approximately understanding the adaptation between the two. Adam and Eve have been harmless(in the truest experience of the information): they did no longer understand approximately deceit or hatred or love or certainty or life or death. They could no longer have. that they had in no way met every physique different than God and that that they had no genuine reason to disbelieve something he advised them. Then devil confirmed up(in case you've gotten faith the Christians, which you shouldn't--the classic Hebrews incredibly theory it became basically a serpent) and began speaking. Now, like I reported above, the only guy or woman Adam or maybe ever spoken to in the past became God and that they have got been used to trusting him. Why does not they have confidence devil additionally? bear in mind, till after ingesting the fruit, that they had no awareness of sturdy or evil or certainty or lies or deceit. They could no longer understood the repercussions of their movements. Now, Christians can blame Eve all they desire, yet truthfully that without her action(and that of Adam), none individuals could be right here on the instant. Assuming you may have confidence the Genesis tale. which you shouldn't. to respond to your question, God created all it incredibly is, which incorporate all it incredibly is sturdy and all it incredibly is undesirable. he's, in spite of each thing, all-powerful, omniscient and omnipresent. We people get blamed for the lack of the Almighty to handle the troublemakers in his very own residence.

It is unlikely that eating the fruit truly gave Adam and Eve any further knowledge. It was the act of disobedience that opened Adam and Eve’s eyes to evil. Their sin of disobeying God brought sin and evil into the world and into their lives. Eating the fruit, as an act of disobedience against God, was what gave Adam and Eve knowledge of evil (Genesis 3:6-7).

This very old story (older than christianity) has traveled along side man forever. The idea that we as man had seized our humanity, our knowledge, even fire, from a higher place or a higher being, is essential in making those things sacred and special too us.

A truly omnipotent being wouldn't extend it's own free will into a vessel just to punish its inherent nature later on. If the so called apple is not be eaten the why is it planted and introduced as the one thing you cant have.

God gave them an abundance of fruit to eat. He provided for them. All he asked is that they not eat from this one tree. It was all about obedience to him. If your mom told u that she put cookies in the cookie jar for you, but don't eat the cookies she put up for daddy or u would get in trouble, and you ate some anyway along with some of yours, don't you think you would be punished? You knew that your mom said don't eat them, I left plenty for you. When u ate the cookies, you knew it was wrong, and u knew u would get in trouble. God knows what's in our hearts. So when Eve was convinced to eat that forbidden fruit, and shared it with Adam, they both tried to hide, and covered up theirselves. God asked Adam, "what is it that u did?" He already knew, but wanted to see what the response would be. Adam said, the woman that u gave me, she made me do it. He blamed it on Eve, and even God because God gave him Eve as a companion. So it wasn't a matter of eating the forbidden fruit, it was a matter of obedience. They should have just been happy with what they had, which was plenty.

that was the symbol of authority. They could do whatever they wanted but that tree was a reminder that God made them and that they owed everything to him. If they ate from it, it would be like saying, "I don't need God to tell me what to do. I can rule myself". That's exactly what they did and now look at the vile world we live in. All they had to do was obey one simple rule, but they were like ungrateful kids.

Its like when your mom tells you not to touch the stove cuz its hot. She's telling you for your own good but some dumb kid always has to touch it. And what happens? He gets burn and now he has 2nd degree burns all over his hands and all because he couldn't obey ONE simple rule.

God shared everything with them but Eve wanted to be like God, something she could never be even if she wanted to.

And its not necessarily a concept of right and wrong. Its more like, if you tell your dog to sit. Its not wrong to stand but right at this point his owner is telling him to sit. So it would be in his best interest to do it. Same thing with Adam and Eve. We will never know what could have happened if Adam and Eve had listened to God. All we know is that they chose not to obey one simple rule. They went over the highest authority and that's why they died.

Two things:

1) They were told not to. It is common in Christianity to interpret this story as a childlike disobedience and punishment.

2) In Buddhism, it is the "pairs of opposites" thinking, including the assignment of good and evil to things, is exactly the kind of thinking that God can't stand and keeps you/me out of harmony with God, out of His presence. Certain Academics think that the story was originally one that was compatable with this Buddhist idea, where Good and Evil are just different sides of the same coin and God cares nothing of the stupid assignments and prefers, instead, to embarce to whole of existance.

God put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden to give Adam and Eve a choice to obey Him or disobey Him. Adam and Eve were free to do anything they wanted, except eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:16-17, “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” If God had not given Adam and Eve the choice, they would have essentially been robots, simply doing what they were programmed to do. God created Adam and Eve to be “free” beings, able to make decisions, able to choose between good and evil. In order for Adam and Eve to truly be free, they had to have a choice.

God never said it was wrong or bad. What He said was that if they ate from that tree, they would die.

20 And the Rulers took him and they placed him in paradise. And they said to him, 'Eat that is in idleness. For indeed their delight is bitter and their beauty is licentious. For their delight is deception and their trees are impiety. And their fruit is an incurable poison and their promise is death. And in the midst of paradise, they planted the tree of their life.

But I, I will teach you what the mystery of their life is, the plan they made with each other, the likeness of their spirit.

Its root is bitter and its branches are deaths. Its shade is hate and deception dwells in its leaves. And its blossom is the anoint­ment of evil. And its fruit is death, and desire is its seed, and it blossoms from the darkness. The dwelling place of those who taste from it is Hades, and the dark is their resting place.

But what they call 'the tree of the knowledge of what is good and evil' is the Epinoia of the light. They (the rulers) remained in front of it in order that he might not look up to his fullness and come to know the nakedness of his shamefulness. But as for me, I set them right so that they would eat."

And I said to the Savior, "Lord, was it not the snake who taught Adam so that he would eat?"

The Savior laughed and said, "The snake taught them to eat from a wicked desire to sow which belongs to destruction, in order that he (Adam) would become useful to it. And it knew that he was dis­obedient to it because the light of Epinoia dwelled in him, making him more correct in his thinking than the Chief Ruler.

21 And he wanted to bring out the power which he had given to him. And he brought a trance upon Adam."

And I said to the Savior, "What is the trance?"

He said, "It is not as Moses wrote as you heard. For he said in his first book that he laid him down in sleep, but rather it concerned his sensibility. For indeed it is said by the prophet, 'I will make their hearts heavy so that they might neither give heed nor see.'

Then the Epinoia of the light hid in him.