Objection · Case 06 · Problem of Evil
God put the tree there, put the serpent there, and made humans who didn’t yet know good from evil, then punished them for a choice they couldn’t have understood. Isn’t Genesis 3 a setup rather than a fair test?
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
Jewish and Christian interpreters have wrestled with this reading for two millennia. The traditional reply is that the humans did know one thing clearly, that God had commanded them not to eat, and that obedience to a trusted creator does not require full knowledge of consequences; the choice was whether to trust. The presence of the serpent and the tree is what makes the choice real rather than staged, which any free will response requires. Whether the consequence fit the act is a fair question; the story’s own answer is that the consequence is the natural result of choosing autonomy from the source of life, not an external penalty bolted on.
About this exhibit
This objection is to The book of Genesis, the account of the fall.
Genesis 3 tells of the first humans choosing to define good and evil for themselves rather than trusting God, and of the fracturing that follows, in their relationship with God, with each other, and…
Under Claim 02: Scripture presents a world made good and then broken by human rebellion, so it diagnoses evil rather than pretending it is not there.