the forbidden fruit could not taste sweeter
george's last lj really sparked my interest. upon rethinking the story of adam and eve in the garden, i have decided to look at eve not as someone who brought on the absurdly coined "fall of man", but as a heroine. if the apple represented knowledge, truth, answers, then i would have eaten it too.
going deeper as i usually do, i've begun to question that allegorical story of creation altogether. it is said that eve was tempted. tempted, what a tricky word. eve, a woman, a human was tempted. whenever i think of an act of temptation, i imagine someone closing her/his eyes to push some disadvantageous thought to the back of the mind, as alluring as it might seem. now, could it be said that a person could be tempted to perform an act that was not already desirable to her/him? i would conclude no. i doubt that i could be tempted to kill a child in any way form or fashion; however, seeing as how this has never happened, i cannot claim to hold absolute truth. it's just for exemplary purposes. yet i am sure that i could be tempted to do something that already has the disposition of appealing to me. something like spending money with my parents' credit card, or missing a class to do something more entertaining. therefore, it would seem in my ponderings that eve already had the knowledge that she seemed to be dangerously inviting into the world by eating the forbidden fruit. she was aware of what it would do to her mind, and so she obliged.
"When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it."
genesis 3:6, emphasis added
thus, i am making the claim that eve had knowledge prior to her eating of the apple due to the very fact that she acknowledged how it would bring her more wisdom. eve was no idiot. clearly, she was equppied with human curiosity, an essence given to her by whom? her Creator, of course. if It was to breathe life into her physical body, It was surely to enable her mind and consciousness to operate accordingly. to be tempted to gain wisdom, eve surely then had the wisdom to know what wisdom even was, and even more, what it might do for her.
now, how is this the "fall of man"?
one might argue that it is the first case in the Bible in which humans outrightly disobeyed their Creator, and she/he would be right. yet this still does not address the significance of wisdom and why gaining more is to be considered "dangerous" or "immoral". why couldn't adam and eve have gotten into an argument, and performed some aggressive act that would then be called the "fall of man"? why knowledge? and why was it forbidden in the first place? in all of the story of the garden of eden, it does not explain why adam and eve would "surely die" once they ate of the fruit. it only mentions how their eyes were "opened" and ever since we've been a humanity full of Suffering and Doom and Sin.
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
genesis 3:4-5, emphasis added
so, did eve not already know good and evil? obviously she did, because she previously was aware of the prohibition of the fruit. to obey my mother i must be aware of the good that will come from obedience and the evil that arises from disobedience. otherwise, it does not make sense for me to call myself a sentient being with free will if i am not aware of good and evil. eve must have already had wisdom and understanding simply because she was essentially, innately, inherently human, not evil.
therefore, what am i, a female alive some seven thousand years later [yes, going by the Bible, that is how old our planet supposedly is...] going to let that symbolize to me? am i supposed to take this as a warning of how attempting to "be like God" and knowing good and evil as it meant to a culture millenia before my own is ultimately "sinful"? i just cannot subscribe to it. i cannot, in the deepest corners of my heart body and soul, believe that it was a human being's desire for wisdom that was the catalyst for the sufferings of mankind. in fact, if i were eve, i would have said thank you to Satan himself. i then would have fallen down on my knees to the earthen floor, lifted the dirt to move between my fingers, let my head fall back and screamed pitifully at an empty sky. why? why create me?! why throw me into existence and give me these things called eyes, noses, feet, skin? why berate me for wanting to know more? why allow me to hurt in my darkest moments, with the idea that things will be better when this life is over? why give me death? why be born if only to die? i cannot have the slightest comprehension of what it means to be alive except for the fact that i have a consciousness. if i cannot even understand what it means to be alive, then how can i know what it means to die? and if i cannot understand what it means to die [and never come back], then i rebuke the very concept of assuming that i will step out of this world into a better one. do You hear me? this is all i know. this is what i know. this. right now. me. what i've seen. what i've heard. what i've learned. so don't You dare tell me that because of my wanting so desperately so pathetically to learn more about why i am here and what it means to live, that i have committed a sin against You, against the Being Which Itself created the stars and the universe and the photons circulating a plane which i will never see. for even in my suffering, and how i have suffered, i have loved life. whatever it is that balls itself up in the middle of my being that lets me know that is is good, is why i must always learn and never stop. i will never settle on a life waiting for me after this one, a paradigm in which everything is peaceful and harmonious. i cannot even begin to understand what that environment would entail, since i have never experienced one.
could you?
because even your thinking and imagining of such a place would be contaminated by the bias you have simply from living in a world such as this.
it is for these reasons and others that a Christian belief system has lost its importance in my life. yet i long for that comfort i once felt, and strive towards it. i want to believe in a universe and existence that nurtures my desire for wisdom, instead of shaming it. i will not ever stop thinking about that force that is behind everything. i will never believe everything i am told. and i will never stop questioning.
so yes, i would have eaten the apple, or grapes, whatever it was.
i would have eaten it with relish.
going deeper as i usually do, i've begun to question that allegorical story of creation altogether. it is said that eve was tempted. tempted, what a tricky word. eve, a woman, a human was tempted. whenever i think of an act of temptation, i imagine someone closing her/his eyes to push some disadvantageous thought to the back of the mind, as alluring as it might seem. now, could it be said that a person could be tempted to perform an act that was not already desirable to her/him? i would conclude no. i doubt that i could be tempted to kill a child in any way form or fashion; however, seeing as how this has never happened, i cannot claim to hold absolute truth. it's just for exemplary purposes. yet i am sure that i could be tempted to do something that already has the disposition of appealing to me. something like spending money with my parents' credit card, or missing a class to do something more entertaining. therefore, it would seem in my ponderings that eve already had the knowledge that she seemed to be dangerously inviting into the world by eating the forbidden fruit. she was aware of what it would do to her mind, and so she obliged.
"When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it."
genesis 3:6, emphasis added
thus, i am making the claim that eve had knowledge prior to her eating of the apple due to the very fact that she acknowledged how it would bring her more wisdom. eve was no idiot. clearly, she was equppied with human curiosity, an essence given to her by whom? her Creator, of course. if It was to breathe life into her physical body, It was surely to enable her mind and consciousness to operate accordingly. to be tempted to gain wisdom, eve surely then had the wisdom to know what wisdom even was, and even more, what it might do for her.
now, how is this the "fall of man"?
one might argue that it is the first case in the Bible in which humans outrightly disobeyed their Creator, and she/he would be right. yet this still does not address the significance of wisdom and why gaining more is to be considered "dangerous" or "immoral". why couldn't adam and eve have gotten into an argument, and performed some aggressive act that would then be called the "fall of man"? why knowledge? and why was it forbidden in the first place? in all of the story of the garden of eden, it does not explain why adam and eve would "surely die" once they ate of the fruit. it only mentions how their eyes were "opened" and ever since we've been a humanity full of Suffering and Doom and Sin.
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
genesis 3:4-5, emphasis added
so, did eve not already know good and evil? obviously she did, because she previously was aware of the prohibition of the fruit. to obey my mother i must be aware of the good that will come from obedience and the evil that arises from disobedience. otherwise, it does not make sense for me to call myself a sentient being with free will if i am not aware of good and evil. eve must have already had wisdom and understanding simply because she was essentially, innately, inherently human, not evil.
therefore, what am i, a female alive some seven thousand years later [yes, going by the Bible, that is how old our planet supposedly is...] going to let that symbolize to me? am i supposed to take this as a warning of how attempting to "be like God" and knowing good and evil as it meant to a culture millenia before my own is ultimately "sinful"? i just cannot subscribe to it. i cannot, in the deepest corners of my heart body and soul, believe that it was a human being's desire for wisdom that was the catalyst for the sufferings of mankind. in fact, if i were eve, i would have said thank you to Satan himself. i then would have fallen down on my knees to the earthen floor, lifted the dirt to move between my fingers, let my head fall back and screamed pitifully at an empty sky. why? why create me?! why throw me into existence and give me these things called eyes, noses, feet, skin? why berate me for wanting to know more? why allow me to hurt in my darkest moments, with the idea that things will be better when this life is over? why give me death? why be born if only to die? i cannot have the slightest comprehension of what it means to be alive except for the fact that i have a consciousness. if i cannot even understand what it means to be alive, then how can i know what it means to die? and if i cannot understand what it means to die [and never come back], then i rebuke the very concept of assuming that i will step out of this world into a better one. do You hear me? this is all i know. this is what i know. this. right now. me. what i've seen. what i've heard. what i've learned. so don't You dare tell me that because of my wanting so desperately so pathetically to learn more about why i am here and what it means to live, that i have committed a sin against You, against the Being Which Itself created the stars and the universe and the photons circulating a plane which i will never see. for even in my suffering, and how i have suffered, i have loved life. whatever it is that balls itself up in the middle of my being that lets me know that is is good, is why i must always learn and never stop. i will never settle on a life waiting for me after this one, a paradigm in which everything is peaceful and harmonious. i cannot even begin to understand what that environment would entail, since i have never experienced one.
could you?
because even your thinking and imagining of such a place would be contaminated by the bias you have simply from living in a world such as this.
it is for these reasons and others that a Christian belief system has lost its importance in my life. yet i long for that comfort i once felt, and strive towards it. i want to believe in a universe and existence that nurtures my desire for wisdom, instead of shaming it. i will not ever stop thinking about that force that is behind everything. i will never believe everything i am told. and i will never stop questioning.
so yes, i would have eaten the apple, or grapes, whatever it was.
i would have eaten it with relish.