RE: What is Satan? An Alternative Interpretation of the Story of Creation
Thanks for the question.
I have another interpretation. Or maybe not. You decide:)
The Bible I see as a metaphoric interpretation of human consciousness in retrospective. The tree of knowledge unleashes the opportunity to become conscious. Before, humans were animals in the kingdom of all other animals. With eating the apple, being warned that it is dangerous to eat it, comes the awareness of being human. With this awareness of being a being comes painful thought and idea. Humankind lost its innocence the moment the apple was eaten. It was no longer careless about its own life. Apple as a milestone (could also have been the invention of making fire).
A cut is no longer a cut releasing some blood and causing pain. What it else became is that the human who cuts himself suffers from having cut himself.
I guess we are still in the story. The tree of knowledge was just the first one and now we are having millions and millions of "knowledges" which produce more knowledge of the knowledge. I think back then when the Bible was written, we already had some forty thousand years of humankind lived and started to be aware that this is not the end of the game.
I compare it with the movie Matrix where Neo is asked: "which pill". Taking the pill of knowledge includes suffering and seeing the world as it is.
Well, I think there are many people who can serve some interesting interpretations. I am just too tired to search for them.
Bringing this idea to the matrix, the bible shows you the glitch with in the first two stories. After reading the old testament you get the feeling that the book is from some othere time, as it is some kind of log book that was passed down from a far older age.
oh, that very well can be. I don' see why human thought and communication should not be transported through eons of time. Makes sense.
Yes I have considered that correlation with the matrix too, but of course, this would make Morpheus the Serpent within said analogy.
I do have a question about your interpretation, however. If Adam and Eve were as animals before eating of the fruit of tree and knowledge, do you think it ought to be considered an act of defiance to eat from the tree in such circumstances? It would suggest to me that for them to understand the command enough to obey, they would need to know good and evil, right and wrong- do as your told or don't.
Yes, it would require that. I only can give you my experiences with dogs, who count as animals, I would say:-) from what I saw a dog can distinguish between being allowed to do something or not. Right and wrong I would include that. Not including "good and evil", that would go too far.
From a third perspective, Adam and Eve might have been used to transport the message to the receiver of the message: the reader and interpreter.
I can imagine that it is meant as a process, not just changing from knowing nothing to knowing it all but slowly but surely losing the former innocence.
But it could be that after having the Bible several times altered the original message is lost and we now are facing a riddle. To act in defiance requires a punisher who threatens with a consequence. To act out of curiosity makes it different, it doesn't necessarily need a punisher but starts a process of conditional emergence. Which is what I believe happened throughout the story of mankind.