Why is the first sin in Genesis, the act of obtaining knowledge?

The sin was actually not the gaining of the knowledge of good and evil. You see, you don't always read the bible in modern day terms, quite simply because it wasn't written in modern times. Many people misinterpret the Bible because of this. For instance, the phrase that God created the Earth in 7 days is misinterpreted, because that doesn't mean it actually took 7 days. You gotta know some stuff about ancient literary writing and metaphors to actually understand it. But I won't go into that since I'm not talking about that. As for original sin, the phrase that they gained the knowledge of good and evil and became aware that they were naked doesn't mean that they sinned due to their gaining of knowledge, it meant that Adam and Eve had come to look upon themselves as something other than a creation of God's (I.E., something that should be free of God's rules and laws).

It was the fact that Adam and Eve refused to acknowledge God as their creator that was the original sin. According to Jewish tradition, the divine prohibition was to give them free choice and allow them to earn, as opposed to receive, absolute perfection and intimate communion with God, a higher level than the one on which they were created.

There's many theories that people may have in order to answer this question. The first may be that Adam and Eve were made innocent so nothing they could do would be right or wrong. Another view may be that they tried to put themselves above God by eating from the tree. Their sin was in that rather than the actual fruit. Other may say that this is a figurative story for the exiles Israel had endured while they were in Babylon. They strayed away from God and were exported to a foreign land.

The first sin was not the act of obtaining the knowledge of good and evil, it was the act of disobedience towards God which opened the door for other sins.

Adam & Eve (Made with Original Holiness) ---> Disobeyed God (sinned) ---> Lost their Original Holiness from that sin ---> All other sins stemmed from their disobedience towards God ---> Mankind is now born without that Original Holiness, that is why it's called Original Sin.

the first sin was not trying to obtain knowledge

it was eating from a tree that god said not to touch

no knowledge would be gained from eating from the tree

The first sin in Genesis was not giving the copyright to the Samaritans. -- or --- The campfire chats which originally told that story hundreds of years before Moses was born.

God freely gave our first parents knowledge to a degree of quantity and quality that exceeds all cumulative knowledge earned by man throughout history ; their knowledge was nearly divine. The sin was to illegitimately seek knowledge that was prohibited by God ; knowledge that they really did not need but were tempted to seek by the same serpent that tempts people into the occult today. This was about love and obedience ; not about knowledge ; this was about trusting that God had provided what was needed ; this is about the first act of violence committed by man against God.

It was not generic knowledge. It was specifically the forbidden knowledge of good and evil.

Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Because the smarter you are,the less tangible the idea of big man living in the sky watching you becomes. Basically the same reason why the first thing slaves weren't allowed to do in America was become literate.

It wasn't knowledge as you would know it. They only knew good; so the only knowledge that was gained was that of evil. God isn't against knowledge; just evil.

The first sin was disobeying god and listening to the devil instead.