Valid points and I also agree. I guess I should clarify that I wasn’t stating that the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil itself wasn’t *evil*, merely the way in which Adam & Eve used it outside of the alignment of God’s intention. So I feel like we’re in agreement here.

Whether due to timing or term issues, they stem from the same issue - doing things our way instead of God’s.

I would say there is a big difference between wanting to be “like God” as in assume His level of hierarchy/power vs. wanting to be like God in the right way (His character) in which we are repeatedly encouraged. We are called to seek to determine to know good and evil by submitting to God’s authority and what He calls good and evil. Just aligning ourself with the Spirit and the wisdom that brings vs doing it in our own right without God’s help.

Either way, I don’t think they were necessarily trying to be like God, but it was the sin of the heart that did them in. Anything out of the alignment of a Holy (perfect/set-apart) God breaks communion and fellowship with Him. This requires perfection, which is of course unobtainable on our own. This is the whole point. He is setting up that point to demonstrate that we can’t do it on our own and that we have to rely on Him.

In any case, I think we’re mostly debating semantics here and that we would agree on pretty much all these points if together in person discussing🤙🏼