I'm afraid I'm continuing the dirty habit of responding before I've finished reading the whole thread, so I hope this question isn't totally irrelevant/already answered/unhelpful. If this is the case just ignore it, I'll get to the answer eventually.
Rrhain said:
And the fact that god told them not to eat from the tree is essentially irrelevant. Adam and Eve were innocent. They didn't understand the difference between good and evil since they hadn't eaten from the tree. And since obedience is a function of knowing good and evil, there is no way Adam and Eve could be expected to obey the commandment from god not to eat from the tree.
I'm not picking a fight because I'm really hazy about this myself. My question is this: is a knowledge of good and evil really necessary precondition for obedience? A very young child might have an understanding of what behaviours might please or displease a parent, but not necessarily have much understanding of good and evil. As far as I can see, Adam and Eve lack of knowledge of good and evil doesn't mitigate their disobedience. A lack of knowledge of good and evil shouldn't affect their ability to obey God's word, should it?
I'm really liking the topic. Free-will is such a problematic area. Its of central importance to most Christian world-views. Its seems to be the glue that holds it together. And yet I find it very hard to imagine the existence of free-will in either a universe created by an omni-everything god, or in a godless, mechanistic one. As far as I can see, it only makes sense in a universe occupied by dieties that have limits to their knowledge and power - and thats assuming that God's aren't somehow mechanistically governed, and I don't know how that would work.
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