What things causes stupidity,ignorance?

[Confused Ape]

One more snake tale: the story of Pārśvanātha, a Jain Tīrthańkara (literally “ford maker” — one who creates a ford across the river of samsara to moksha).

Thank you for posting that. I've spent an interesting hour or so looking a few things up in relation to this story.

The first thing that struck me was the theme of the two brothers. The eldest one is evil and he murders his younger brother. (In Genesis, Cain is Abel's older brother.) The theme of the good and evil brothers has turned up all over the place, including in 'Dallas' where evil JR is the oldest son and much nicer Bobby is the youngest son.

Thus the dark brother of this Jaina legend actually serves the light

This reminds me of your interpretation of the fall.

So the fall wasn't intended as a punishment, the fall was God's way of teaching mankind of its essential freedom. The fall was God teaching man to fly.

From this point of view, the serpent in the Garden of Eden also serves the light by persuading Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.

I looked up Parsvanath and found -

Lord Pārśvanātha is always represented with the hood of a nāga shading his head. This nāga usually has three, seven or eleven heads.

Serpent symbolism again. Does the naga represent his brother in serpent form because the serpent's attack resulted in Vajraghoşa being reborn as a god? From the serpent symbolism article again -

As snakes shed their skin through sloughing, they are symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing.

The Yaksha Dharanendra and the Yakshi Padmavati are often shown flanking him.

These attendant deities were reborn snakes.

I wonder how old the roots of all these stories are. We'll never know.

PS:

Take the whole story at face value. Where it ends up is our nature, from this perspective, that man is fallible.
The actors are iconic, and not just because they are so ingrained into our culture. The names chosen have meaning related to their part in the story. Adam: mankind/first man.

That's another interesting point of view.

Trying to bend over backwards to explain fantastical subjects like trees of knowledge of good and evil and talking snakes etc etc as if they were real are absurd diversions. This language is characteristic of the culture and its wider influences, as can be attested to by the preceding and parallel accounts that closely match this one.

We're not talking about these things as if they are real - it's what they stand for in human thought. We're the same species as the people who originally developed these myths.

PPS:

No i think the story is about the apple of knowledge giving knowledge of sinful things rather than just knowledge itself

What kind of sinful things?