If the Bible Taught Us Anything, #2.

And while we’re on the topic of the Garden of Eden, let’s take a look at the two-trees thing.

One of the most fundamental rules of making things work well is making it difficult – or better, impossible - for the operator to make a mistake. 

Take brakes on your car, for example. They’re very important.  That’s why they’re right there where most people can easily reach them.  Move your foot from the “go” pedal to the “stop” pedal.  Simple, almost intuitive now.  Much more complexity would increase the risk of negative outcomes and cares would have immediately been very out of style.

And then there is the Garden of Eden.  Laid out by god to be all that and a cup of tea for all those who lived in it, including humans.  And right there in the middle were two trees.  Eat from those trees and the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket.

So, we heard earlier that the writers of Genesis were pretty clear in their belief that god created man in his own image.  If that’s the case, then that’s a confession that they knew that god had to have known that man would have a dickens of a time laying off the trees.  Maybe he could have put the trees out of reach somehow – at the end of some sort of endurance test or at least up a hill.  Or maybe – and I’m just thinking out loud – not had any disaster trees at all.  I mean, was there some sort of rule that said that those trees had to be there?

If you believe that two of the characterizes of most gods are that they generally are all-powerful and all-knowing, then that makes the whole two-trees thing a set-up.  Man was set-up to fail. 

If you also happen to believe in a loving god then you have to consider why the setup.