Do You Eat the Red Ones Last?

At our group the other day we were discussing the Genesis story. The question came up about whether or not we had real freedom of choice before Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One of our group said that they did since they chose to disobey God and eat from the tree in the first place. Ok, fair enough. Now being the arc typical introvert that I am it sometimes takes me hours, if not days, to process something. So now I’m up at 3:30am thinking about this. Although they had a form of freedom, I don’t think they had true choice until they ate. After all, they didn’t even know they were naked until they ate from the tree. (which brings up another point; why is being naked evil? I wear clothes for comfort, not necessarily modesty. I create a micro climate around my body that keeps me comfortable. If, like Adam an Eve, the climate was perfect, and my wife and I were the only people on earth – literally - I’m not sure I would wear clothes either. This part of the story has never made sense to me) It’s sort of like being offered the choice between a red smartie and a blue smartie, when you are really craving something sour. It really isn’t a choice at all. They are both little bits of chocolate covered in coloured candy. If you close your eyes they actually taste the same. The only difference is the food colouring in the coating. So your choice comes down to the whim of the moment. Now if you had to choose between a smartie and a sour soother, that’s a choice. They are very different in size, shape, and texture, not to mention at polar opposites of the taste spectrum. Not only this, but now your genetic predisposition for sweet vs sour starts to factor into your choice. So, did Adam and Eve really understand what they were doing before they had complete knowledge. I don’t think so.

Now all this brings up another aspect. If God is ultimate good, and evil is the opposite of good, therefore the opposite of God, then you have to know the difference between good and evil in order to choose good and thereby God. If Adam and Eve didn’t really have true freedom of choice until after they had eaten from the tree, then they also didn’t have the ability to truly love. Because you can’t truly love if you don’t have the freedom to choose. If I can’t choose to not love you, then my loving you is meaningless. So since God wants us to freely choose to love him, did God put the tree there knowing full well that man would eat from it -  in fact wanting him to eat from it, because if he didn’t, man couldn’t truly love God?

Hmmm...red or blue?