re: #144 Rev_Arthur_Belling

Going by the story, they were instructed by God not to eat from the tree. They knew that much.

RIght. But they didn’t know good nor evil, so they didn’t know whether it was good or evil to obey that instruction. And in fact, the story doesn’t actually condemn the act as evil, just contrary to god’s wishes. The traditional Jewish interpretation of this is that obedience to god’s wishes is neither good nor evil but a seperate, even more important category, that free will is not just about choosing between good or evil, but also between disobedience or obedience to God. This is also part of the explanation for many of god’s “evil” acts, like slaughtering first-borns and commanding genocides.