❝❝Strictly speaking, what makes you think the apple was unintended in that myth?

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Think about that very carefully for a moment.

Although never explicitly stated, the implication is that nothing could happen in that garden without the approval of it's Creator. That includes the existence of the tree, the existence of the fruit, the existence of the "serpent," and the curiosity of Eve.

So the "Creator" didn't know the possibilities and what would happen, wasn't the real "Creator" (as some Gnostics believed), or the garden was never supposed to be anything except a transitory state.

This last is the commonly accepted alternative. Eden is a metaphor for childhood, something that must be put aside if the person and the culture is to survive. It's not about the "Fall," it's about adaptation and outgrowing what was once enough.❞❞

NeoNotes are the selected comments that I made on other boards, in email, or in response to articles where I could not respond directly.

Tags: myth ∙ Eden ∙ apple ∙ unintended consequences ∙ metaphor ∙ Christian ∙ Gnostic Christianity ∙ growth ∙ adaptation