Eternal punishment is pointless.

[Thumpalumpacus]

And to point out a contradiction of sorts not often mentioned in this passage: death is one of the punishments received for the applebite (according to Genesis 2:17), which implies that before the sin, humans were immortal.

You're correct they were going to live for eternity, scripture makes it clear that sin leaded to death, no sin no death.

Okay.

And yet when then see this curiously ignorant deity ("might"? Wasn't he supposed to know everything?) worried that humans might live forever.

God wasn't worried about them living forever after they sinned, He was worried they would live forever in sin, having to grow more miserable day by day forever, they would be living in hell without the possibility of forgiveness. Hell on earth. God's plan was to redeem man so they could return to a relationship with Him.

Chapter and verse, please, to support the underlined passage. I haven't seen that elucidated in any version of the Bible I've read.

If they weren't immortal before the first sin, then death was no punishment.

Now you're getting it, keep looking and you can see more of the truth.

I've already kept looking. That search led inevitably to my loss of faith.

And if they were immortal before the first sin, why should there be created a tree of life and death,

Oops, now you have slipped back into not actually knowing what the scriptures say, you need to get these things correct if you plan on arguing against them. It was and is the Tree of Life, no death is associated with it. The tree of life was there for them to eat from, it wasn't put off limit.

You're experiencing English-comprehension failure, and tying the issuance of the death penalty to the tree, where I did not say the magic tree was associated with death.

Your deity was clearly worried that humans might eat from the Tree of Life being become immortal. But ... they were already.

and why should the deity worry that humans might become immortal?

Like I explained above [... bullshit snipped...]

Yes, and I look forward to the chapter and verse supporting that claim being posted ... not that I'm holding my breath.

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There are no verses in that story that directly say that, however when one reads the whole Bible and pays the slightest attention to he/she is reading he/she would actually see what sin does to people. Then only those who really care to learn to live a life close to God would actually understand.

GC

Oh, I see. Your reading is right, and mine is wrong, simply because you say so.

Color me unconvinced ... especially now that I've seen your abysmal reading skills.