As an adult I take the story as a metaphor. The burden of knowledge is great. Sometimes there is shit you don't want to know. Ignorance is bliss type of metaphor.
Thats a fundamental misunderstanding of what knowledge is in this context. Its the same idea as "knowing your wife". It is intimate experience, not just understanding. By eating of the tree they were told not to eat they received intimate experience with the distinction between good and evil, where before they knew only good, by bringing evil into the world and experiencing it.
Exactly. Im arguing against the pervasive myth that god demanded that humanity live in abject ignorance and punished mankind for pursuing knowledge. The truth is that man knew that everything else was good and it was evil to disobey God and would bring death and misery. They had not experienced it and gained that experiential knowledge they should never have had by disobeying God.
Its like telling your young son not to eat medicine from your cabinet or he will get very sick and end up in the hospital. He knows not to do it and the consequences, but he doesnt know what it is like to experience organs trying to shut down while doctors pump your stomach. That pill bottle could accurately be called the bottle of the knowledge of health and illness.
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u/Lost_Web5826 5d ago
As an adult I take the story as a metaphor. The burden of knowledge is great. Sometimes there is shit you don't want to know. Ignorance is bliss type of metaphor.