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Some of this theology shebang makes my head hurt, but here goes.
Am I right in understanding that when adam and eve ate the apple, they gained a moral understanding, and a sort of state of consciousness. I probably have the wrong end of the stick altogther, but isn't that a good thing? Before that, weren't they no better than animals?
I find it quite an interesting concept, but I would like to actually understand it.
I was raised as an atheist, so never went to Sunday school or really learnt much about this kinda thing other then "wasn't that the thing with the thing, and then something happened". not that I regret it ofcourse, don't get the wrong idea about that...

Well, I've rambled on long enough...a little help would be appreciated.
Art

Actually we do not know what the fruit looked like. An apple was used in pictorals of the event because it was a common known fruit. Adam and eve ate of the "fruit of the tree of knowledge" which gave them the knowledge of right from wrong. This gave them  and their descendants the understanding of sin. Having this knowledge therefore made them accountable for their sins the first of which was the eating of that fruit.

Does this make us the same as other animals? No. We were made to have dominion over animals and plants. We were made with a soul from the start just not to have accountability.

Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.


Gen 2:7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Oh, I think I get it. So they (us) know when they have sinned and are therefore deliberately going against God's will.

People don't know or accept their sin until they come face to face with it because God convicts them of it, or one accepts to have a relationship with Him and then every time they do sin, they (hopefully) realize it and feel the need to confess and get right with God. Adam and Eve had a relationship with God. They knew He was their creator, their provider, their friend. They were intimate with Him, and walked with Him in the garden. And once they went against His directions, they were not convicted of it until God came looking for them, and they decided to hide.

Unsaved people do not understand they are deliberately sinning against God. As far as their concerned, as long as they're not hurting anybody, what they do is their own business. I would dare say that the fall of man is not even comprehendable to them or they just don't believe it......until they come face to face with the One who created them, who wants to provide for them, who wants to be their friend.

They ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil after being decived by the serpent that was the physical maifestation of satan in the garden of Eden. You will find that this event in the garden of Eden is a very important one where man fell into sin and death.
Because God stood outside of time and forsaw this happening, He had already prepared with the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world - Jesus.
Many ask why did God give this temptation to man, but it is all about how He was able to create a choice that would bring about the love and character He desired in His creation as His eternal family. As a master artist cannot paint all things with just white, God created the colors and the very antithesis to the light in darkness so that He could reveal Himself in creater detail and focus to His creation.
With God, even evil turns out for good, as the scriptures say:

 Ro 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Ro 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

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I love it when the dancing bear is brought in!! Yea!

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