Post 2: August 13th

The second creation account emphasizes knowledge and the tree of knowledge in order to effectively juxtapose good and evil. Knowledge is so heavily communicated throughout this account because the account as a whole describes a human’s constant state of free will with both good and evil decisions. The catalysts in making these decisions and the underlying factor of all free will is knowledge. The second creation account is depicting this struggle of balance and how knowledge drives all free will. According to Legaspi, the eating of “the tree of the knowledge of good and bad” is the entrance of evil into the human free will. While free will existed before the consumption from the tree, this was the first evil act of free will and thus symbolizes the nature of a human’s being and free will: both good and evil. The act was eating and not some other activity because eating is a self-promoting action that benefits no one but yourself. It makes the act of taking the forbidden fruit to another level because it was for self-pleasure. Touching or looking at the special object aren’t on the same level of selfishness. A tree from which to eat was used because nature is a gift from God and by stealing from a tree is still from a gift from God. The failure of Eve and Adam isn’t just disobedient it’s an active exercise of their free will against God in the first act of free will evil. It shows that we can use our free will to do as we please but that alone doesn’t justify our actions. Yes, eating from the tree makes Eve and Adam more God-like in knowing good and evil. Its merciful for God to banish them because before Adam and Eve only knew what was good and not what was evil but now they had known evil, they needed to be slightly separated from God to fully understand the power of good.