tomspug said:
They KNEW what they were doing was wrong, but only understood the consequences afterwards, like when a child touches a hot plate.
Still using this tiresome child-and-hot-plate scenario I see.
You're misquoting the passage. Adam and Eve can tell the difference between obedience (doing what God says) and not. That's what we call 'right and wrong'. The fruit gives them the knowledge of good (God) and evil (not God). They had no concept of evil before then. That's what we call shame: understanding the consequences of our actions.
How can they understand the consequences, if you don't understand what is right or wrong? And the dumb thing about the whole Eden thing, is that they can't know the consequence.
Sure, God said that they would die if they ate it (ie. the consequence). But what is death?
They are innocent, with no concept of good or evil. They have never seen death before, and not until Cain had murdered Abel. How can they possibly understand what death is, when nothing have die before?
You said they can tell the difference between obedience, but that's a whole load of crap, because they still don't know the difference between right and wrong...and they still can't do so until they eat the fruit. That's a "catch-22" situation.
Second of all, knowing right from wrong - or if you like, good from evil - is required to understand the deception. Clearly, Eve didn't understand if God was telling the truth about the fruit or the serpent was telling the truth. So she can't do so until she eat the fruit. Another "catch-22" situation.
If you expect obedience from Adam and Eve, then they need to eat the fruit, to understand if the serpent was lying. If God wanted them to be obedient, then God need to give them more than just forbidding them from eating, because they didn't truly understand what death is.
A God who don't properly inform Adam and Eve of consequence is useless as the mother who don't properly inform the child of the consequence of touching a hot plate. Obedience don't mean crap, if don't have the proper information and not able to judge right from wrong.
Just because Adam have knowledge of naming the animals, don't mean he know crap about wisdom. Wisdom require judgment about right and wrong, and it would seem that God don't want them to have wisdom.
So it is God's fault that they fail test....if that was a test. And if it was a test, it was unfair one. Everything was stacked against Adam and Eve.