If Genesis is correct about Eve and the apple, then didn't God make evil appear in the world on purpose?

Yes. If there is a God than God is the true architect of evil. That’s a good take.

@Caravanfan Arguably God left it just ambiguous enough that all women could forever be blamed for evil, which is even more evil, on a meta level…

To the OP’s question, God can’t be omniscient and omnipotent and then feign ignorance or impotence. it’s not logically consistent.

@gorillapaws That’s also another point I’m making. On one had the Catholic faith says everything is by design. Which means God knows what people are going to do before they do it. Which would mean that he knew they would eat the apple. Even in the case of the story of Judas who betrayed Jesus. It was fortold he would be the betrayer. So my thought is why would God be mad if he bought into the world people he knew would do evil things. Unless, he doesn’t know everything or needs evil like the way ying and yang go together. One can’t exist without the other. But I always thought it was irrelevant who ate the apple first. The real question, is why did it exist at all.

@Pandora That’s correct. Basically the religious answer is “God acts in mysterious ways” or “mortals can’t possibly understand the motivations of God” every time you point out something that doesn’t make sense. And technically it’s possible they’re right, although someone making it all up would also say exactly the same thing. These claims aren’t falsifiable which are why they’re beyond the purview of Science.

If you think of the bible as literature (not religion, but a folktale), then creating evil is simply a plot device that will lead to further drama as the story continues.

A lot like a murder mystery, where the body is found early in Chapter 1, but you don’t get the bad guy identified un til Chapter 40.

There is a school of thought none of the bible is true in a factual sense, but it is just a collection of stories written to show rules for living in society.

It’s possible that sometime in the future, God would have allowed Adam and Eve to eat from that tree, but we don’t know now. But he did create them with free will and they chose to disobey him. He’s not the architect of evil, but rather wanted man to worship and obey him of his own choice. Trying to blame God because Adam and Eve sinned is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, sorry. And yes God created Lucifer but Lucifer is the one that out of pride decided to defy God and that is why he is a fallen angel. By the way, we don’t know it was an apple. It just talks about the fruit.

@LifeQuestioner But what did Adam and Eve know of sin? Nothing. So they innocently let their curiosity get the better of them. If God is all powerful, why even put temptation in their way when he knew Lucifer could trick them? They were told nothing in Eden would harm them. Plus, everything in heaven and earth was made by God, so that means the Tree of Knowledge or whatever it was. Also, one can argue that real love doesn’t mean testing people. Also nothing to say they stopped loving God after they disobeyed.

@elbanditoroso, There is a school of thought none of the bible is true in a factual sense, but it is just a collection of stories written to show rules for living in society. Possible.

@gorillapaws Yes, the whole, we will never understand Gods plan because he is God. Yep only he made us in his image. So doesn’t it suggest he gave us the ability to understand him. Funny enough, I do believe in the God, and Jesus. I just have big issues with the bible in places where it conflicts.

There are two Gods according to the bible. One of pure wrath and one of pure light and love. So which one is the true face of God?

It does seem like entrapment.

I think it is a lesson to be obedient. I don’t see any reason why God would not have kept tempting Adam and Eve if they had been good children and passed that test.

Don’t take drugs, don’t touch the stove, are the modern day don’t eat the fruit. For God to punish the world seems like overkill.

You need to already have knowledge of good and evil to know that it is evil to disobey god and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And to tell them they would die if they ate the fruit, when they had no understanding of what “death” means?
It was a set up, plain as day.
He put the tree there, unobstructed. He put the snake in the garden, knowing full well its nature.
God is a liar. God is a schemer. God is a mass murderer.

God is actually doing not too bad a job of running the world. The sun rises the grass grows. it is Man who always makes a mess of things in ways that probably never occurred to God.

Rather than God giving them access to evil, He gave them choice. The tree symbolizes any temptation, which seperates us from God. We all are tested constantly even today so the metaphor is just as applicable now as it was then.
If you have a child, you dont know they wont be a Dahmer or BTK, but people still have kids. Choice to me is the moral of the story.

@Pandora I consider myself mostly agnostic. I can’t rule out the possibility of God, and there are many positive values in the Bible: kindness, generosity, tolerance, mercy etc. I think faith can give people meaning and comfort. I just don’t think that God can be omnipotent, omniscient, and good. A good God doesn’t allow the Holocaust to happen. A good and all-powerful God doesn’t allow Stalin, and Mao to wipe out tens of millions of people.

If God is real, they either get off on watching us sin and suffer, or they spend most of their time worrying about stuff on the other side of the universe than whether Billy is going to make that penalty shot and win the game, or Becky’s surgeon is going to leave any of the tumor behind…

I think you said it correctly at the beginning, “So in the story”. Yes, it is a story. I think that is the biggest fact to take from this. The rest is what you wish to belive.

This is a much deeper question that it seems on the surface. God created all including snakes, apples, et al. All things serve his purposes. Looking at the story as a factual thing means that God did create evil. The question of “why” still remains unanswered by that. He also made the tree of knowledge and specifically told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of it. And the question of “why” remains there as well.

Here is a take you might not hear in church: God created the tree for one of two reasons. One reason might be that he created it to tempt man to go against God’s directives. If that is the case then it isn’t evil, it is just a test result that would set the stage for the rest of our existence. And the evil Satan, who talked Eve into being tempted was only playing a part.

The other reason for creating the Tree of Knowledge may have been a matter of timing for Man. God created it to open the minds of man when He felt the time was right. When Adam and Eve were sufficiently mature emotionally and spiritually, God would introduce the fruit to them to help them move to the next stage of their growth. They would be able to understand the changes the fruit would introduce to them and would be able to deal with them. This explanation falls in line with how we develop as humans. We are born innocent and as we grow and learn about the world around us we are introduced to more and more knowledge. It is supposed to be up to the parents to control the inflow of that information to our children (much as God would control the introduction of the fruit to Adam and Eve). And just like with the story, if our children give into temptation or are corrupted in learning more than they are ready for, it creates many problems for us.

And we have to remember that God created us not to be his slaves or automatons, He gave us free will to choose. He gave us guidance to lead us to the right way to grow and live, but doesn’t direct our every move. And just like with mortals, when our children do things we don’t want them to do, we get upset with them and sad about what they are doing, but we still love them.

I never understood why an apple would be the bad fruit. It’s such a nice fruit, it’s good for you, was it just the apple in that location?

It actually was a banana, and Eve did not eat it.

^^ You are bad.

@seawulf575 I can see that. As a way of gauging maturity. It kind of opens up a whole other idea. Like the way most parents don’t talk about sex until the kid asks questions or starts to see someone of the opposite sex and they become concern, especially if the child is rebellious in nature.

Maybe the tree of knowledge was about desire. Religious scholars often say that woman was punished by having to endure labor. But maybe it was never about that. It was about procreation. Once, as you say, they were mature enough to disobey God, it meant she was mature enough to have children and bear children. Just men who interpret the story see it as punishment and blame women for original sin and call them temptresses so they can legitimately suppress women.
Before the apple or whatever fruit, they were both pure innocence which would mean they didn’t have lust or desire.
But in that case then it still stands that God evil.

@Pandora It would depend on your definition of evil. Testing someone isn’t evil. Controlling how much information children get isn’t evil. I did both of those things with my kids not to be mean or evil, but to help them grow into smart, confident adults.

…good things God made was creatures who had the freedom to choose good. In order to have a real choice, God had to allow there to be something besides good to choose. So, God allowed these free angels and humans to choose good or reject good (evil). When a bad relationship exists between two good things we call that evil, but it does not become a “thing” that required God to create it.

@seawulf575 If you withheld from your children the dangers of running across a busy street without than that is evil. If you withheld from the you told your children nothing can harm them ever and let them run around without supervision, that is evil. You can protect your children by informing them of potential harm when you aren’t around. You don’t have to get into details. I warned my children of certain harms that may come their way for when I couldn’t be near them. Don’t cross the street alone. You can be hurt by a car because the driver may not see you in time. I feel he couldv’e warned that Lucifer was a liar and can appear in different forms. Either way, he wanted evil to exist, probably because it was necessary.

Mayby Adam ate the forbidden fruit and then, all innocence lost, blamed Eve.

@Pandora And in the story of Adam and Eve, God did tell them of the thing that was dangerous. With the analogy of our kids, if we tell our kids not to cross the street and they do it anyway, is it really evil? It’s wrong to disobey your parent, but is it really evil? Again, it comes back to your definition of evil. As I said in my initial answer, this question goes a lot deeper than it seems.

@seawulf575 Yes if you withhold dangerous information and you knew the risk that the person would do it. If a parent puts a poisonous cake on the dining table and told the kid it will kill you but the child has never witness death or understand what it means then the parents are evil. Like the first time a bird fell down to the ground dead. My daughter was 3 and begged me to make it better. I told he it was sickly and was dead. She cried and said I always made her feel better, so why couldn’t I make the bird better. I tried to explain death but she didn’t understand. Even then they did not die physically. But it seems I guess their souls died, maybe. If they even had a soul to begin with. But we will never see eye to eye on that.
However, my point was why was it always based on two innocent like like humans and no one every questioned why was the tree even there?

@Pandora That last question is what makes me think it was going to be introduced to them eventually. God created Man and Woman and gave them dominion over all things of the Earth: the plants, animals, birds, rocks. But not that one tree. I’m guessing there were other poisonous plants. But that tree was put there for some reason.

Another interesting point is that we know later God said he regretted creating humanity due to the evil and violence, leading to Noah and the flood.
God bound the fallen angels to prevent the spread of evil to the new generations post flood, then promised He would never do that again.
Seemingly correcting the issue, which obviously lead to redemption through Jesus rather than further destruction.