# What would have happened if Adam didn't bite the apple? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 31, 2023, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837 "2023-05-31T19:18:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/1 "2023-05-31T19:18:16Z")
according to the Bible, sin entered the world when ADAM ate the apple. If Adam didn’t bite the apple, would sin still have entered since it was only Eve who bit? How would that work, since Eve knew good from evil, but Adam didn’t? ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/2 "2023-05-31T19:28:52Z")
It would have been a man’s world. Man would be able to do whatever he wanted without consequences and women would be subjugated and forced to wear clothes that did not expose them sexually. Pretty much the same as humanity lived until about 100 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/3 "2023-05-31T19:38:28Z")
Lilith…er Eve would have been kicked out of the garden of Eden and God would have made Adam another companion. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/4 "2023-05-31T19:40:59Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > It would have been a man’s world. _Au contraire_, Adam would have stayed in the garden. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/5 "2023-05-31T19:44:59Z")
> [@fedman1](#): > > according to the Bible, sin entered the world when ADAM ate the apple. I Not quite- the _knowledge_ of sin and shame. ie. the difference between Good and Evil entered the world. Which is why they put on fig leaves. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/6 "2023-05-31T20:00:19Z")
God would have found some other way to achieve the desired outcome. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/7 "2023-05-31T20:00:28Z")
_Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world_ _Romans 5:12_ But what does Paul, author of most of the New Testament, know? ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/8 "2023-05-31T20:01:57Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > God would have found some other way to achieve the desired outcome. That or people who have written another “just so” story. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/9 "2023-05-31T20:05:48Z")
Nothing would be changed. I’m sure that his wife, Eve, had already tasted the apple and was just drawing Adam in so it could all be his fault if it went wrong. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/10 "2023-05-31T20:13:32Z")
remember I said Adam did NOT eat the apple, so why would he need to wear fig leaves? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/11 "2023-05-31T20:24:12Z")
Yes, that was your “what if” but your basis for the “what if” was incorrect. ---
**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:** [May 31, 2023, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/12 "2023-05-31T20:43:59Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > That or people who have written another “just so” story. Yeah. It’s a story that purports to explain “how we got here”; so it only works if the events of the story work as an “explanation” for how the world got to be the way it is as we know it. It’s like asking “What would have happened if Pandora hadn’t opened the box?” If Pandora hadn’t opened the box, then the world would presumably not be filled with all the ills it contained (unless they came from some other source, but that would render that particular story irrelevant). Since the world that we live in _does_ include sickness and death and hardship and etc., the story would no longer work as an explanation (even a mythological or metaphorical or purely fictional one) of how our world got to be the way it is. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/13 "2023-05-31T21:06:44Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Not quite- the _knowledge_ of sin and shame. ie. the difference between Good and Evil entered the world. Which is why they put on fig leaves. In essence, Sin was already here - we just didn’t know better. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/14 "2023-05-31T21:07:46Z")
> [@simster](#): > > In essence, Sin was already here - we just didn’t know better. Yep. More or less. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/15 "2023-05-31T21:09:06Z")
> [@fedman1](#): > > remember I said Adam did NOT eat the apple, so why would he need to wear fig leaves? ⁢ Because Eve would be embarrassed. And Adam explicitly would not be happy being alone. So unless we surmise that God would make Adam a new helpmate and send out Eve on her own, it still seems like they leave the garden. Women would just smarter than man, while man would be more innocent yet dumber. And maybe Jesus would be a woman. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/16 "2023-05-31T21:28:31Z")
Pedantic aside: nowhere in the bible does it say that the fruit was an apple. It was the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Many people have taken it to be an apple, others a fig, and yet others have further guesses. My own take, offered without proof, is that the author of Genesis most likely intended to be a unique tree, of which only one specimen ever existed, the one in the Garden of Eden. ---
**Author:** ![WellHelloThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9dc877/32.png) [@WellHelloThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WellHelloThere)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/17 "2023-05-31T21:33:08Z")
According to Rosy Perez in the original White Men Can’t Jump, it was a quince. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.E](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.e/32/8932_2.png) [@Mr.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.E)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/18 "2023-05-31T21:36:39Z")
He would have been hungry ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/19 "2023-05-31T21:37:38Z")
Beat me by 8 minutes, but your username/content combination beats me by a mile. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837/20 "2023-05-31T21:57:16Z")
I’ve always liked to think of the Garden of Evil story as a metaphor for humanity becoming distinct from other animal species. Eating the fruit symbolizes humans becoming aware of the inevitability of death (in the day of eating it you will surely die). This realization actually spurs human primates into the driving ambition to improve their situation before death, and also begins the delusional development of religious belief (in order to cheat death with an shared obsessional certainty about a non-evident afterlife). You see, presumably, animals only think of death when it is immediately upon them, sparking a survival instinct to avoid being eaten. Once the threat is removed, the fear of death is not real for animals. Animals do not ruminate the way humanity does about death. Or if in fact they do, it doesn’t seem to bother them as much as it does us. But thoughts of death are always pressuring humans with a relentless need to acquire, to better their lot in life, to live a fulfilled happy life before the fast approaching end. Ambition and belief in the paranormal is what the fear of death has brought us. And we put on fig leaves or, if you will, clothes. No other animal wears clothes. Another distinction between animal nature and ourselves. Eating the forbidden fruit is about us discovering that we cannot escape dying (or sin which leads to death). That’s my atheist way of interpreting it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-adam-didnt-bite-the-apple/984837.md?page=2)