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[Bandicoot]

What if Eve bit the forbidden fruit but Adam didn’t?

The creation story goes that God created the Heavens, Earth, Animals, and Man. Adam and Eve were the first two humans. God said they could eat from any tree except from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The Serpent tells Eve that it would make her “like gods”. She eats it, then Adam eats it. But what if after Eve bit the apple, Adam didn’t? What would have happened? If Eve leaves the garden but Adam stays, how would humanity continue, considering in order to have children, man and woman need to mate?

[jimwalton]

The "what if" question is always impossible to answer, but I'd love to comment on some of your assumptions.

> The creation story goes that God created the Heavens, Earth, Animals, and Man.

There is good reason to believe that Genesis 1 is about how God ordered the world to function in a certain way rather than about its material manufacture.

> Adam and Eve were the first two humans

If Genesis 1-2 are about how God ordered the cosmos and the world to function in a certain way, then Adam and Eve are not necessarily the first two humans.

> God said they could eat from any tree except from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

This is true. But the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" is about who was going to be the source and center of order. In the ancient world, God was often associated with the concept of wisdom, and "the knowledge of good and evil" is a idiomatic way that they expressed that concept of wisdom. The tree in this story, therefore, is to be associated with the wisdom that is found in God (Job 28.28; Prov. 1.7). It's not that Adam and Eve didn't know about good and evil before this, but that God was inviting them to acquire wisdom (godliness) in the proper way at the appropriate time by obedience to him. "Good and evil" is a legal idiom meaning "to formulate and articulate a judicial decision (Gn. 24.50; 31.24, 29; Dt. 1.39; 1 Ki. 3.9; 22.18). The idea is that they would seek God's ways instead of their own, to recognize God as the source and center of order rather than themselves as humans. The tree corresponds to their ability to decide. What was being forbidden to the humans was the power to decide for themselves what was in their best interests and what was not.

> The Serpent tells Eve that it would make her “like gods”.

This is correct. The gods were perceived as the source and center of order.

> But what if after Eve bit the apple, Adam didn’t? What would have happened?

It's always impossible to answer the "what if" question.

> If Eve leaves the garden but Adam stays, how would humanity continue, considering in order to have children, man and woman need to mate?

It's possible there were other hominids around.

[Bandicoot]

This question is impossible to answer, I've already figured out. It seems to me you're saying Adam and Eve and Original Sin was real, but the original story is allegorical? Jeez, I wish things were simpler and I didn't have to contemplate between Deism and Christianity.

[jimwalton]

> It seems to me you're saying Adam and Eve and Original Sin was real,

Yep.

> but the original story is allegorical

Nope. The story is historical, not allegorical. It's my position that Genesis 1-2 is telling us how God ordered the cosmos and the Earth to function, not how it came to be (its material manufacture). Adam and Eve are historical persons treated like archetypes (representing the whole human race) but not allegories (unreal fictional characters to pose as metaphors of other principles or qualities).

> I wish things were simpler and I didn't have to contemplate between Deism and Christianity.

In ways we wish things were simpler, but in most ways we're glad they're not. If they were simpler, we'd probably conclude, "This is just too simplistic to explain everything or to be true," and we'd write it off.

I think Deism because it is impersonal and detached. Since we are personal beings, to have an impersonal deity doesn't gel. It seems like it's a way to have a god without having to be confronted by him or have to make any changes in what we want to live like, and that doesn't make sense to me. If God is real, it has huge implications for everything.

My other contention with Deism is that it sees morality as derived from human reason, and since humans are essentially rational, we can expect an upward trajectory of human development and history, and thus be optimistic about the future. The reality I see in history and in current events gives quite a different picture.

Deism is convenient because it eliminates any possible interaction between science and religion, in addition to a divide between morality and accountability. Deism, by my assessment, is a comfortable way to lock God in a closet so we don't have to deal with Him.

To me, it's not a tenable position. Let's talk about it more.