In Genesis they succeeded in eating only the fruit of the former, and thus destroyed not the universe-as-God-intended-it but merely humanity’s default entitlement to paradise.
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Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden were forbidden from eating the fruit of the Trees of Knowledge and of Life, the rationale being that, should they do so, they would become like God (omniscient and immortal). The audacity of human intrusion into the fields of knowledge has always been seen as an act of taboo-breaking inviting extreme punishment. The key narratives of any culture, with minor period-specific modifications, get repeated across boundaries of time as well as place and almost always have, at their basis, an awareness of the link between knowledge and power.
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(Aristotle, Metaphysics) They Know Not What They Doġ Culture has no need of time machines. (Genesis 3: 3-24)Īll men by nature desire knowledge. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. Then the eyes of both of them were opened And the Lord God said, ’The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.
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She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman. God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.