What is the religious interpretation of Adam and Eve?

It is a great story, but I have trouble interpreting it. After eating from the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve acquired knowledge of good and evil. That would mean that prior to that, they had no knowledge of good and evil. If that is the case, then their action of disobeying God cannot be considered evil. Why then were they punished? Could the act be considered instead a type of loss of innocence that made them unsuitable to continue living in the Garden of Evil?

The other problem I have is to wonder why God asked them not to acquire whatever knowledge that was obtained by eating from the tree. Isn’t knowledge a good thing? Could it be that the knowledge was not in the fruit but in the action. In this interpretation, the disobedience in and of itself transformed the relationship between God and Man. From now on, obedience would be a choice rather than an automatic reflex.

I am not a religious person, but the interpretation of the story does not hinge on whether the events depicted actually took place. For those others of you who are not religious, please refrain from any snide remarks.