In the Garden of Eden segment in Genesis, God creates a paradise, and then he creates Adam and Eve, who he calls his children. And he tests them in a way that plays over and over again in creation: God says "Don't eat the apple". The serpent, representing peer pressure, says: "Hey, try the apple." Eve says, "Hey, let's eat the apple." They eat the apple, and their eyes are opened, and they see their world and they make a big fuss of nudity.
I understand that this is an origin story that predates Christianity, and that its intention is to come up with an explanation about why there's pain and suffering and menstrual cramps, but the problem is that the story has unintended consequences that cause more harm than pain, suffering, and menstrual cramps.
These are the reasons why I have trouble with this story (my viewpoint is probably biased by western culture and feminism. I do not apologize):
1. Adam and Eve, God's children, have done only what generations of teens have done since: disobeyed their parents after having been given incomplete information on the consequences. God has, in effect, underestimated the intelligence and drive in his creation, and as a result, he exiles his children from the Garden with no remedy.
2. Questioning one's parents is one of the hallmarks of growing up. Many an argument at the Thanksgiving dinner table has developed as a result of one's values having changed by going off to college. In effect, then, God has punished his children with the nuclear option for growing up.
3. Although both ate the apple, Eve earns more than her share of scorn for eating first and then handing the apple to Adam. This casts Eve in a maternal role over Adam, rather than acknowledging Adam did it by his free choice. Therefore, Eve is put in the tricky position of being both Adam's mother and his spouse. This continues as a myth in today's relationships: women are put in the position of "taming" their partying bad-boy boyfriends into "real men", and the men secretly blame them for destroying "the good old days". Ironically, it also justifies the belief that women can't make reliable decisions and that men must make them for their families. If you take this to its logical conclusion, women end up being made responsible for men who won't actually listen to them.
4. As a professor, I tell my students that my job is to prepare them to reach beyond and accomplish things I haven't accomplished. I'm told that parents want their children to have it better than they do. Why, then, is God such a bad parent in this tale? Why doesn't he want Adam and Eve to possibly outreach him?
The Genesis tale appears to be about obedience. However, unrelieved servitude is not any more laudable than unrestrained freedom.
What about a balance?
I myself envision two trees, each representing an extreme -- freedom and responsibility, rational and artistic, introverted and extroverted, individualistic and communalistic. We take a bite of each to understand the extremes, and pledge ourself to a balance of the two we can live with, because the extremes both have their damage.
Take a bite of each -- the yellow apple tastes like the most perfect apple you've ever tasted, the one that tastes like a memory, like comfort, like nostalgia. The red apple tastes like impossible things, as if molecules of violets and woodsmoke and applejack from a mason jar and a taste of apple pie and tiny strawberries.
Of course, in my version of the Garden of Eden, Adam had to choose between Eve and Lilith. He chose Lilith, and ever since, people questioned the myths they were presented with.
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