# What was the purpose of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-purpose-of-the-tree-of-the-knowledge-of-good-and-evil/980405>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 26, 2023, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-purpose-of-the-tree-of-the-knowledge-of-good-and-evil/980405 "2023-02-26T19:56:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2023, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-purpose-of-the-tree-of-the-knowledge-of-good-and-evil/980405/6 "2023-02-26T20:41:00Z")

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I think that’s essentially the same point that @Alan_Smithee was making here:

> [@How were Adam & Eve supposed to know it was wrong to eat the fruit?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-adam-eve-supposed-to-know-it-was-wrong-to-eat-the-fruit/380795/21):
>
> Now that’s done, I can join the wild speculation of the rest of the thread. The big question for me is why that tree was there to begin with. I see the story as an etiological myth explaining loss of innocence and (if it’s not too anachronistic) our existential “thrown-ness” in the world–that unlike every other creature, we seem unaware of our purpose and at odds with our surroundings and ourselves. (Remember the immediate consequences of the Fall: pain in working for food and in giving birth,…

That whole thread has some good stuff, but the specific post I linked to is particularly good and particularly relevant to this question.

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