(May 16, 2017 at 8:46 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote:(May 16, 2017 at 10:01 am)SteveII Wrote: But the ability to disobey (which they obviously had) is not the same as being made aware of the good and bad within yourself (the loss of innocence). I used 'intentional' because it was not an accident--they actually discussed that God said not to eat it and chose to do it anyway.
I understand the difference you're making and think it is a fair one. It just leaves me with a big question. If the evil was already in Adam and Eve then that has to be the way god created them. Are you ready to say that god is the creator of evil? Are you then ready to justify god punishing them for manifesting what he created in them?
It's not about free will. I don't derive my child of free will by not giving him a button that will blow up the world and leaving him to choose.
I wouldn't say there was hidden evil already within Adam and Eve. It was potential evil because with free will, the potential will always be there regardless of whether one choices to do wrong. Once they disobeyed, the understood a lot more about that then they did before "there eyes were opened" and they understood the the difference between good and evil.
Isn't the tree just a metaphor for the act of disobedience (I'm not saying there wasn't a tree)? I don't think the tree was magical, it just represented the only choice to disobey God in those circumstances.
