What exactly is the Tree of Life vs the Tree of knowledge?

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In the bible,Adam and Eve (whether literal or not) ate a fruit from the Tree of knowledge which God had forbidden.
What exactly was their sin-was it that they had disobeyed God or was it rather that they gained some knowledge that they shouldn’t have?

Does this have any relevance to us today?

Eg:is being curious about a religion like Hinduism and meditation (more than just reading about it) constitute ‘tree of knowledge’ or am I misunderstanding it?

For example,Indian spirituality seems very contradictory to Christianity/Abrahamic religions because the experience is very “inward seeking” and people experience states of bliss,ecstasy,emotional/tears,states of oneness etc in response to their satsangs/music/meditations but on the other hand why would God even make these Indians aware that such things even exist if He didn’t want people doing things contradictory to Christianity?

I understand the Catholic Church states that centering meditation etc is contrary to catholic,and I know it’s quite a deep topic, but I’m just more curious why these things exist in the first place?
 
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Rozellelily said:
In the bible,Adam and Eve (whether literal or not) ate a fruit from the Tree of knowledge which God had forbidden.
What exactly was their sin-was it that they had disobeyed God or was it rather that they gained some knowledge that they shouldn’t have?

Does this have any relevance to us today?
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Modern Catholic Dictionary:

TREE OF KNOWLEDGE. A certain tree in the Garden of Eden. God forbade Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of this tree, simply to test their obedience (Genesis 2:16-17). They disobeyed his order, failed the test, and were put out of Eden (Genesis 3:23).

TREE OF LIFE. A tree that stood next to the Tree of Knowledge in the middle of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9). It conferred on anyone eating its fruit the gift of immortality (Genesis 3:22).
 
Adam and Eve’s sin was disobedience. They rejected the natural moral order established by God in favor of their own, and followed that up with a failure to repent.

As for the Tree of Life, I have seen the Cross referred to as the Tree of Life, as well as the Eucharist (as being the fruit). But I don’t wish to suggest there’s just one single answer to that question, as it’s not an area I’ve studied deeply.
 
Rather than simply knowledge, the full reference from Genesis 2: 17 is “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” meaning that they chose to embrace sin (rejected their divine creator) in place of their original innocence.
Genesis 2: 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die
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From the CCC:
How to read the account of the fall

390 The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.
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http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p7.htm
 
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And then they were aware that they were naked.
I don’t get that part either?
Does it mean that at first they were innocently naked or something but afterwards they felt lust etc?

If they were husband and wife wouldn’t it be natural that they were attracted to each other’s nakedness and not a sin?
 
Once they grasped the knowledge of good and evil, they saw that they were capable of every kind of evil. They knew God would know of their disobedience, and they were afraid. Covering themselves is the response to that knowledge, as if they could hide sin from God. Lust is a distortion of the gift of sexuality, but also represents every kind of lost harmony in creation.
CCC 400: The harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now destroyed: the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation is broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man.
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Rozellelily said:
If they were husband and wife wouldn’t it be natural that they were attracted to each other’s nakedness and not a sin?
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The rite of marriage is established by God later on, on Earth, in the OT. It was not immanent at least according to the Bible. If Adam and Eve behaved as if spoused then it was the result of the original sin methinks. Awaiting the counter argument.
 
Rozellelily said:
For example,Indian spirituality seems very contradictory to Christianity/Abrahamic religions because the experience is very “inward seeking” and people experience states of bliss,ecstasy,emotional/tears,states of oneness etc
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Are you not aware that the Catholic Church also values contemplative prayer?
 
Actually, God told Adam and his wife to go forth and multiply. So they were wedded from the beginning, and invited by God to be partners in creating new human life.
Genesis 2: 24-25 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
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The Fall ruined all that original innocence, distorting relationships between spouses.
 
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thistle said:
Modern Catholic Dictionary:

TREE OF KNOWLEDGE. A certain tree in the Garden of Eden. God forbade Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of this tree, simply to test their obedience (Genesis 2:16-17). They disobeyed his order, failed the test, and were put out of Eden (Genesis 3:23).

TREE OF LIFE. A tree that stood next to the Tree of Knowledge in the middle of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9). It conferred on anyone eating its fruit the gift of immortality (Genesis 3:22).
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:+1:t3:
This also has a strong parallell for us today that we must continue to obey such that in today’s “eating of the tree of knowledge” can relate to ‘knowing’ better what sin is and not following the church teaching, ‘knowing’ better how to interprete scripture from my own understanding, “knowing” better how the pope should act…and so on with all the things we think we know better than the church, Christ’s body.

Peace!!!
 
The tree of knowledge of good and evil does exactly what its name says. It tells you what is good and what is evil. The garden is the human soul. The tree is the human conscience. We should look at it but not touch it. It tells us what is right and what is wrong, something we may not decide for ourselves.
 
Yes but I think it’s different like contemplating on the life of Jesus rather than ‘normal meditation’.
 
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