Death and The Knowledge of Good and Evil

Let's talk about Adam and Eve and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Many people believe this story is about the first humans becoming mortal. God had warned Adam and Eve that in taking the knowledge, they would die.

But the story seems to be telling us something different. When Adam and Eve take the knowledge, they don't immediately die. Instead, they experience immense shame, and a breakdown of their relationship with each other and with the natural world.

So the warning was not about immediate physical death. Some suggest it was about a "spiritual death", but if we stop there, that seems to stray from the immediate subject matter.

The story is about knowledge. About knowing things that only God is supposed to know, things that bring fear and terror into the human heart. That knowledge takes hold and becomes a defining force in history, corrupting all of human existence.

So the story is not about how we lost our immortality. The story is about how we discovered the secret the animal kingdom does not know: We all die.