Well, from my reading of Genesis, I see the following:
Adam and Eve are charged with something they should not do. Eve, in discussion with the serpent, says it is wrong (demonstrating prior ability to differentiate) They eat of the fobidden tree, and are then put out to keep them from eating of the tree of life, and becoming like "us" - Gods!
So, the tree cannot have provided them morality, as they already demonstrated that. The tree must have provided some sort of definate knowledge, as the ancients were very good at naming things for what they were about. What Knowledge did Adam and Eve have after eating the tree?
"Their eyes were opened". They saw they were naked, were ashamed, and made clothes. This implies that prior to this time, they did not make the connection mentally between nakedness and sex (since that is the only reason for shame in nakedness). They hid from God. This implies that prior to that time, they welcomed God, because they had no sin (one can bring in Jesus' statement that he and his Father are one, because he always does things that please Him). So one can see that now, they were conceiving of things that were sinful.
Imagine a child, never exposed to violence of any type (extremely unlikely). Imagine this child is spanked for the first time. Power has been exerted over the child with violence. This child now will understand the concept of using force to get what one wants. Thier eyes have been opened to the concept.
And that was all original sin was. It was a personal sin of Adam and Eve. It did not automatically taint every single human, but each human in turn has been introduced to sinful ideas, and had to turn away or accept them on thier own. No one today is being punished for Adam's sin, except by the unfortunate situations that are extant because people choose to do harmful things.
I beg to differ
Adam and Eve are charged with something they should not do.
Eve, in discussion with the serpent, says it is wrong (demonstrating prior ability to differentiate)
They eat of the fobidden tree, and are then put out to keep them from eating of the tree of life, and becoming like "us" - Gods!
So, the tree cannot have provided them morality, as they already demonstrated that. The tree must have provided some sort of definate knowledge, as the ancients were very good at naming things for what they were about. What Knowledge did Adam and Eve have after eating the tree?
"Their eyes were opened".
They saw they were naked, were ashamed, and made clothes. This implies that prior to this time, they did not make the connection mentally between nakedness and sex (since that is the only reason for shame in nakedness).
They hid from God. This implies that prior to that time, they welcomed God, because they had no sin (one can bring in Jesus' statement that he and his Father are one, because he always does things that please Him). So one can see that now, they were conceiving of things that were sinful.
Imagine a child, never exposed to violence of any type (extremely unlikely). Imagine this child is spanked for the first time. Power has been exerted over the child with violence. This child now will understand the concept of using force to get what one wants. Thier eyes have been opened to the concept.
And that was all original sin was. It was a personal sin of Adam and Eve. It did not automatically taint every single human, but each human in turn has been introduced to sinful ideas, and had to turn away or accept them on thier own. No one today is being punished for Adam's sin, except by the unfortunate situations that are extant because people choose to do harmful things.