Isn't the Knowledge of Good and Evil a good thing?

Question

In the Garden of Eden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was forbidden to man.
But isn't it a greater protection to mankind to be able to identify evil before it overtakes them?

If a child couldn't tell a child molester from a nice young man, she would be in terrible danger.
If a man couldn't see that the gang member with the gun meant to kill him, he could be a statistic.

Why was this knowledge forbidden in the first place?

Answer 1

One quote I've found has always summed the myth up for me:



"What is the nature of the guilt that your teachers call his Original Sin? What are the evils man acquired when he fell from a state they consider perfection? Their myth declares that he ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge—he acquired a mind and became a rational being. It was the knowledge of good and evil—he became a moral being. He was sentenced to earn his bread by his labor—he became a productive being. He was sentenced to experience desire—he acquired the capacity of sexual enjoyment. The evils for which they damn him are reason, morality, creativeness, joy—all the cardinal values of his existence. It is not his vices that their myth of man’s fall is designed to explain and condemn, it is not his errors that they hold as his guilt, but the essence of his nature as man. Whatever he was—that robot in the Garden of Eden, who existed without mind, without values, without labor, without love—he was not man.



Man’s fall, according to your teachers, was that he gained the virtues required to live. These virtues, by their standard, are his Sin. His evil, they charge, is that he’s man. His guilt, they charge, is that he lives.



They call it a morality of mercy and a doctrine of love for man."

Answer 2

This type of question drives many people to the safety of their sophist literalist foundation of their belief system. The Sohar gives a more informed approach to the creation story and the Kabalists would be most knowledgeable about the subject. In their Tree of Life, there is a male side and a female side with the middle being the balance between the two aspects. Example on the male side is Wisdom and opposite it is Intelligence/Jehovah--not a balanced god as is obvious in O.T.). Anyway when the male/female principles are balanced by an individual, they become the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This corresponds with Gnosticism belief that by ignorance man has fallen and by knowledge that ignorance will be dissolved.

Answer 3

There were no child molesters or gangs in the garden of Eden. It wasn't so much that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden, it was the tree of eternal life that was forbidden once Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Most people do not realize there were two trees.



Genesis 3:22



"And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."

Answer 4

The reason they could exist with God in the Garden of Eden was because they couldnt sin there. And the Bible says God cannot abide the least degree of sin or unrighteousness. As soon as they had the knowledge, they could sin, therefore they had to "fall" from Gods presence. This was his plan anyway, since that was the only way the human family could be born into physical bodies on this earth. BUT, for it to happen, Adam and Eve had to make the choice. So its not like God didnt want them to have knowledge but he had to forbid eating from the tree because there was a natural consequence that they would die, physically, from eating it.

Answer 5

What is to know good when there is nothing to compare it to? What is knowledge? Truly what is it? One definition is "the sum of what is known".



Knowledge is a tool, an instrument for understanding. It serves us in this realm of physicality. There are rules and laws of which must be followed... as we "know" them. However rules and laws have a funny way of getting broken or in the very least, bent. So then knowledge is a dynamic and not a static, no matter how much knowledge we personally or collectively acquire. Yes?



In this world and form, existence if you will, we are to "experience" Life. That means we must discover what is and what isn't, for lack of a better description. We discover sound but only by the grace of silence. We discover matter (thing) but only the grace of the absence of matter (no thing). We discover love but only by the grace of fear. Do you see?



Good cannot be "good" if not for the grace of evil or "bad". However the purpose of existence is not to know one and not know, ignore or reject the other. It is our purpose but to LIVE and EXPERIENCE. And once discovered the beauty of Life, we find that it is only ours to LOVE and thus, what was once perceived as Evil and Good, becomes One. And through the darken veil we see that what was good/evil before is and has always been... only... our... judgments.



Blessings

Answer 6

Yes. It is a myth told by people a very, very long time ago. It is likely they knew then that it was just a story. It is similar to the story of Pandora. Can you imagine what this world would be like if, instead of the bible, people were taking the stories of the Greek and Roman gods literally and basing their morality on those stories, refusing to vote for anyone who didn't profess to believe the stories, insisting that everyones children be forced to worship the gods and goddesses in their public school classes, etc.? Ludicrous, eh? But not much, if any, different from what is going on now.



~Ex-Christian. Atheist.

Answer 7

People could never become evil until they know of it. There could be no child molester to begin with because the person wanting to molest would not know how to sin (look on a child with lust). Guns would not be used for murder in the first place because nobody would have knowledge of murder.



The whole mess was started with "original sin".



You could fit in with the morm0ns. They believe that God basically tricked (they do not use that word) man into biting the apple and man could never become a God himself if he did not. They feel the original sin was part of God's plan and that the ultimate goal of man is to be like god-the very thing the serpent told them they ought to do. Scary.

Answer 8

Thinking we know all the answers and do not need God is the real problem.

Another complication is that our own nature tends to take the good, righteous and holy commandments of God and turn them into a motivation for sinning...the command to not bear false witness makes it imperitive to tell untruths...the command not to kill...creates the desire to dominate by war....the command to not commit adultery...well, you see where this is going.



Then, if mankind would sin, with no way of avoiding it...or of atoning for it...they would live forever in a state of sinfulness...this is why death was introduced. Seems harsh on this side of eternity, but there is a plan to redeem and make it right. God offers life to those who repent and return.

Answer 9

It replaced right into a nasty factor for Adam and Eve and all of their descendants to consume of the tree of understanding of stable and evil. it is a severe count to diobey the desire of God. It replaced right into a attempt and that they failed. we are nevertheless given the alternative daily to the two serve God or our very own fleshly hobbies. we've an excellent form of forbidden culmination we are able to consume yet choose for to no longer.

Answer 10

The reason why Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and bad was not to acquire knowledge, if we look at the account in Genesis, we understand that they were not stupid at all.



Adam named all the animals, and Eve knew the laws and commandents of the Bible, as we saw when she spoke to the serpent.



However, they ate from the tree to rebel.

Answer 11

The temptation was "to be like God", who know good and evil. The "knowing" there was more than just have knowledge, but to be able to decide what is good and what is not, to be independent from God.

Answer 12

In the Garden there was ONLY one law. No other. Adam and Eve broke the ONE law that existed. before that, they lived harmoniously with God and everything was completely open and honest. There were no secrets and everyone was happy because they had no knowledge of good and evil. For them, EVERYTHING was good.



It was only after the Fall that their eyes were opened and they realized they were naked and for the first time they felt shame because they now knew their thoughts were evil and God could read their thoughts and knew they could do evil if they so desired. That realization spread to the entire human race, and before you knew it, everyone was basically evil and no longer wanted a close fellowship with God.



Sin separates us from God and from other people. If there were no Fall there would not be any child molesters or gang members.

Answer 13

Awareness always help shape our conduct in accordance with the Order/Good and to overcome Evil.

Answer 14

There isn't evil in the mind of God and while we are absorbed in the mind of God there is no evil to be protected from. Once we leave the safety of God's presence, then we are vulnerable to forgetfulness and confusion and fear and angst and....

Answer 15

Sounds like a tautology, like isn't it nicer to be nice.The other excellent answers cover the moral consequences. Good stuff!

Answer 16

Because God's a d*ck. Turn to any given page in the Old Teste and there will be at least one verse describing God being a d*ck.



That, and the story's made up.

Answer 17

Good question! Personally I have my own way of looking at it. God knew that Adam and Eve would eat the fruit, he designed them that way deliberately. He wanted them to move out of the garden, to grow up and lead their own independent lives, just like any parent wants their kids to grow up. He gave them a strong curiosity and a rebellious spirit, the strong desire to make their own decisions, to have their own knowledge of morality, and it wasn't like them to want to stay kids forever and rely on him for every little thing.



I see Genesis as allegorical, not literal. The 'sin' of Adam and Eve that's passed on down to us is our insistence on trusting our own consciences, our own inborn knowledge of good and evil. But it's just part of growing up.

Answer 18

The knowledge is good but not the Knowledge.

Answer 19

The point is, one gets to know evil by experiencing evil. God intended humans to have an existence free of evil. Therefore, choosing to experience that which God wanted to protect us from was not a good thing. Since man did choose evil, yes, now it is necessary that we know about it in order to avoid it as well as we can.

Answer 20

Knowledge is always good.

Answer 21

It is forbidden because God said so. The End.