Paradise now.

A mind not to be changed by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

We were reading from Paradise Lost in British Lit last week, which rekindled a concern I'd had about Adam and Eve. I've been troubled for a while by an alternative interpretation of the Eden account that goes something along the lines of, if knowledge is a good thing, why would God withhold it from us? There are some, most notably feminist, takes on this issue, that often cast the serpent, and therefore Eve, in a more favorable light. Instead of being vilified as the conduit of sin to the world, they celebrate Eve as the harbinger of knowledge.

I found such an interpretation seductively appealing, but I knew it had to be incorrect, not just because the Bible clearly does not portray it that way, but because the story would not work with what human nature is truly like. But Milton put me in mind of another possible perspective. What if the knowledge Adam and Eve gained from the fruit was experiential? What if they already had a priori knowledge of sin, but were lacking a posteriori knowledge?

Maybe Adam and Eve were just like oh, pretty much everyone else. They were given the right path to follow, someone who had a broader perspective and their best interests in mind asked them to trust him and take his advice, and yet they wanted to see for themselves anyways. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way. Live and learn. You don't know until you try. We have an awful lot of truisms that ring hollow in light of the garden.

The World was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.