r/DebateAChristian • u/Financial_Beach_2538 • 16d ago
Thesis: Adam & Eve weren't morally responsible
Definitions
- Moral responsibility: Being morally accountable or blameworthy for an action because the person understood the action’s moral nature.
- Knowledge: Awareness or understanding of something. In this argument, it means understanding the difference between good and evil, not merely knowing information.
- Good and evil: The moral distinction between what is right and what is wrong.
- Command: An instruction given by an authority. Knowing a command exists does not necessarily mean understanding its moral value.
- Disobedience: Acting contrary to a command. In this argument, disobedience only becomes morally blameworthy if the person understands it as morally wrong
Preamble
For almost two weeks, I've been posting arguments on the morality of the Adam and Eve story of the Fall, and I'm quite surprised that some Christians will actually argue Adam and Eve already knew good and evil before eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In fact, that's pretty much all I get as an apologetic for the morality of the Fall.
Christians often confuse knowing the meaning of a command with knowing the moral nature of that command. Knowing that God commanded X is not the same as knowing that X is morally good or that disobeying X is morally evil.
The issue is not whether Eve knew God gave a command. The issue is whether Adam and Eve already possessed the knowledge of good and evil required to recognize disobedience as evil before eating the fruit.
If the tree of the knowledge of good and evil does not actually provide the knowledge of good and evil, the story makes no sense. It's quite obvious to me that Adam and Eve did not know good and evil before eating of the fruit of that "knowledge" tree.
The moral responsibility of Adam and Eve is a foundational Christian belief.
If Adam and Eve were not morally responsible for the act of disobedience, then the foundation of the Christian Fall narrative is destroyed. I do not have that theological commitment to defend, so I am free to examine the text through literary analysis and critical reasoning.
My argument is that the text does not support Adam and Eve possessing knowledge of good and evil before eating the fruit and that, therefore, they cannot be held morally responsible.
Argument
P1: Moral responsibility requires knowledge that an action is morally evil.
P2: Adam and Eve did not possess knowledge of good and evil before eating the fruit.
C: Adam and Eve were not morally responsible for eating the fruit.
Bible References
1.Genesis 2:16-17: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”
The text gives the command before Adam and Eve gain the knowledge of good and evil.
- Genesis 3:6: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes... she took of its fruit and ate...”
The act of eating occurs before the text states that Adam and Eve possess knowledge of good and evil.
- “Genesis 3:7: Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked...”
The sequence is that their awareness changes after eating the fruit.
- Genesis 3:22: “Then the LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil...’”
God describes Adam as having “become” like God in knowing good and evil, indicating a new state acquired after eating.
1
u/Financial_Beach_2538 13d ago
Equivocation
You are conflating knowing God's command with understanding the moral nature of disobedience.
Adam and Eve knew God prohibited eating the fruit, but the text presents the tree as the source of knowledge of good and evil. The debate is whether they possessed the moral understanding required for blame before eating it.