To his utter discomfiture, Rand finds that this removal of the ability to choose between good and evil, has now transformed people into one dimensional beings — people who are happy not because they are happy but because there no longer is the choice to be sad, people who experience only positive emotions, because they have been robbed of the choice to experience a ‘negative’ emotion such as sadness, pain, suffering,etc. Although Adam decided to disobey God, it does not mean that God’s plan failed. Now that we have established the need for a choice, let us progress to the next important question. In the context of today’s world, it difficult to live without coming face to face with suffering in one form or the other. Consequently, a difference in the usage of these two terms can be found in Genesis 4:1, where “...Adam knew (yada—knowledge by intimate involvement) Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain,” and in Genesis 2:17, where God stated: “...but of the tree of the knowledge [da´at—distinction of the knowledge] of good and evil you shall not eat.” Certainly, this knowledge did not involve anything bad by itself, since it was not based in the experience of good and evil, but rather in the enlargement of the mind’s understanding to distinguish between good and evil. In conclusion, one more point needs to be stressed. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then why? I believe that the way we have come to this conclusion is erroneous. In this case, the fact that the man is able to choose, holds no meaning because there is an absence of choices for him to choose from!! God not only made various types of trees grow in the garden, but the text informs us that “every tree that was pleasant to the sight.” God not only made sure that there were many trees for man, but He also made sure that these trees looked attractive to man. If He did not know it then He was not wise, and if He knew it He was wicked (Alba, n.d., emp. Parking lot dropkick - Duration: 3:05. Imagine a man who has the ability to choose to walk on any road that he wished to. So by essentially placing the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden and commanding Man to NOT eat from the tree, God was providing Man with the choices of good and evil. We, as humans, act in a similar manner. Why Did God Create the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? If God hadn’t placed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden in the first place, Adam and Eve wouldn’t have sinned and the world’s problems would be moot. In fact, just a few verses after this event (after they’ve been banished from the Garden of Eden), He actually sets up angels to guard them … The tree of the knowledge of good and evil ... Augustine underlined that the fruits of that tree were not evil by themselves, because everything that God created was good (Gen 1:12). The Creation account of Genesis is one of the most sublime narrations recorded in the Bible. It wasn't cursed or supernaturally imbued with sin, and the fruit did not contain some special ability to impart knowledge of good and evil. In a way this question places the blame of evil and suffering solely on God, since it follows that God was responsible for planting the very tree responsible in the fall of man in the garden. Its purpose appears to have been twofold. Why did God Create the Tree of Knowledge in the First Place? The only way to give this choice would have been to command something that was not allowed (2004, emp. 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