why was the tree in the garden?

mattp said:

Why set humans up with an opportunity to fail instead letting them eat of every tree?

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love: to give them the freedom to chose obedience or disobedience

I think we can speculate until we are all black and blue in the face.

Katzpur said:

God wanted Adam and Eve to be able to experience both good and evil. Being able to discern between the two and choose the right when confronted with a decision is part of progressing.

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Then why punish them at all?

If God already knew the outcome, thus omniscient, then why get angry over the result and curse them?

To test them, when the result is foregone conclusion doesn't seem logical at all. Unless he wanted them to fail. In that case, God deserve an Oscar award for faking self-righteous anger.

gnostic said:

Then why punish them at all?

If God already knew the outcome, thus omniscient, then why get angry over the result and curse them?

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I believe He punished them because they disobeyed Him. But the punishment was essentially nothing more than a cause and effect type of thing. If you tell a three-year old not to reach up and touch a hot stove top because if he does, he'll get burned, and he touches the stove top anyway, what happens? He gets burned. God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil or they'd "surely die." They ate the fruit and became subject to death. I don't see the "punishment" as being unfair at all, but I do see it as necessary for the reason that I've previously stated: They could not possibly recognize the good that was Eden without also experiencing the evil outside of Eden. It was not until they were cast out of the Garden that they began to progress. I really don't know how much more plainly I can state my point of view. I'm sorry if I'm leaving questions unanswered, but that's about a good as my explanation is going to get.

mattp said:

Why set humans up with an oppurtunity to fail instead letting them eat of every tree?

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IMO this is a "getout" clause indicating perfection cannot be achieved, only approximated. Anything more would be God, wouldn't it?