Why couldn't god have tested Adam and Eve's loyalty with a normal tree? The end result is the same, knowing A&E disobyed him, yet it wouldn't have condemned every human from there on as a filthy sinner in need of a blood sacrifice for salvation.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell