I saw this meme that made me think...

Now memes aren't the most trustworthy source of information, to put it lightly, so I took to the Bible to see for myself. It all starts in Genesis 2:

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Then the famous snake comes along in Genesis 3:

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 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. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

The Bible doesn't explain why exactly they covered up, but as they just learned what things are good and what things are evil, and acted immediately, I'd say they realized being naked is evil (according to this book) and they wanted to correct that. Adam's reaction when God asks where they are also supports this:

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

A few things to notice here:
1) What happened when they ate the fruit, was exactly what the snake said would happen. God, however, was either wrong or blatantly lied about the consequences.
2) God intended for them to live naked although that was evil, and for them to be ignorant of their wrongdoing.
3) When Adam and Eve stopped doing that evil thing, and did was what right instead, he got angry and punished them.

You know the saying: a bad guy will tell you he's good, a good guy will show you.

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HootyTheNightOwl

My question is more:- How did they know that nudity was "wrong"???

Even today, babies and children aren't born ashamed of their bodies and nudity (they happily run around on the beach and play in the sea as naked as the day they were born)... so, in the absence of influence from adults around them - why are Adam and Eve ashamed of their naked bodies???

Surely, the fruit of the tree of knowledge didn't give them this knowledge.

NerdyPotato ·

@HootyTheNightOwl I don't agree that nudity is evil either, but that's not the point here. I'm just pointing out what the bible says and it implies the fruit of knowledge taught them that nakedness is evil, yet god intended them to live their life that way.

Bumbles · 56-60, M

It’s just a little story.

basilfawlty89 · 36-40, M

Not Christian myself, but playing devil's advocate (excuse the pun), it could be interpreted that they were immortal before the consumption of the forbidden fruit, and afterwards rendered mortal.

Of course it still makes little sense, but the other two points are still too hard to argue with.

It could almost be interpreted that the Abrahamic God made humans mortal after attaining divine knowledge out of fear of them becoming his rivals.

NerdyPotato ·

@basilfawlty89 no, that was part of the punishment, not from the consumption itself.

22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

basilfawlty89 · 36-40, M

@NerdyPotato oh yeah, forgot that part. So mortality was the Abrahamic God's punishment.

So I might be correct in thinking Yahweh just didn't want a rival.

Sorry, but out of it on the flu meds lol.

LordShadowfire · 46-50, M

This is what I've been saying for about 15 years now. Christians love talking about how humans were good before the fall, but how could anybody be good if they don't understand what's good and what's not?

It sounds more to me (not that I actually believe the story, but rather in the literary context) like God set Adam and Eve up to eat the fruit. "Here you go, guys, here's an entire garden to play in, and here's a big beautiful tempting tree right smack dab in the middle of it, but don't eat any of the fruit from that one or you'll die. Now I'm going to go for a walk, and I totally won't see what you're doing next, la la la la la la." And then along comes a talking snake (with legs, apparently) who tells them God lied when he said they die the day they ate the fruit. Eve fucks around and finds out, and doesn't die. Then Adam fucks around and finds out, and he doesn't die, either. But God sure is pissed. Kicks them out of the garden, now that they've got this newfound understanding of why what they did was wrong, and tells them to go fend for themselves. Like the all-knowing God didn't know that would happen.

NerdyPotato ·

@LordShadowfire that was my old take as well: why tempt them with the tree and even add the snake for even extra temptation, and then punish them for listening to it while they couldn't have known that was wrong? But this little research changed that. He was clearly trying to let them do the wrong thing without knowing that. Now my question about the tree and snake is: why did he tempt them into finding out the truth and doing the right thing instead? It's like the villain in every movie: "I really hope they'll ask so I can tell them my entire plan so they can ruin it."

LordShadowfire · 46-50, M

@NerdyPotato Exactly. Because without Adam and Eve eating the fruit, literally none of the rest of his creation makes sense. Here's a funny video that illustrates it better than I can:
https://youtu.be/A_a6RjR_AHY?si=Eb5h-IKkzHgg0ezW
Update: It's worth opening on YouTube. It's really funny.

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