The Snakes & Apple Metaphor

"I am a snake, not an apple. What does that mean? Well, our civilization - the Judeo-Christian - in its founding myth portrayed the deliverer of knowledge as the source of evil - the devil - and the loss of innocence as a catastrophe. This probably had less to do with religion than with the standard desire of those in authority to control those who are not."

~ John Ralston Saul 'The Unconscious Civilization'.

@fmf said
"I am a snake, not an apple. What does that mean? Well, our civilization - the Judeo-Christian - in its founding myth portrayed the deliverer of knowledge as the source of evil - the devil - and the loss of innocence as a catastrophe. This probably had less to do with religion than with the standard desire of those in authority to control those who are not."

~ John Ralston Saul 'The Unconscious Civilization'.

We probably all live in societies where, to varying degrees, the controlling and withholding of knowledge creates power for some, and the gaining of 'proscribed' knowledge can create danger for others.

While followers of the Abrahamic religions may have incorporated the metaphor into their traditions and given it a supernatural edge, surely the knowledge-authority thing is in fact merely an inevitable upshot of the human condition and of the relationships and interactions between people?

Might not the snake & apple metaphor have been the product of minds seeking to consolidate earthly power and might not the religious trappings have merely been a means of ensuring that the exercise of that power was perceived with deadly seriousness and - most importantly - conformity and obedience?

@fmf said
This probably had less to do with religion than with the standard desire of those in authority to control

What is religion if it can't control followers? They just become myths. This is why religions typically have some story of gods punishing for disobedience, including in the afterlife. The River Styx, hell, Purgatory, etc.

Discouraging the gaining of knowledge helps retain that control. The more knowledgeable people are about their surroundings and society, they more they can question. The more educated you about science, the more you question Genesis.

In the OT, only a select few priests could enter the temple and speak with God, and even fewer could go beyond the veil of the tabernacle. It was the first "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain".

Don't bite the apple, don't look inside the Ark, "no man may see my face and live", walk by faith and not by sight, doubting Thomas, Pandora's box, etc. Ignorance is praised while knowledge is punished. Fast forward, the white Christian's hero, Trump, said "I love the uneducated".

Ignorance and fear are the tools for control in religion.

And also for politics, as that same group of religious people are currently banning teaching the history of racism in the U.S., and some places like Texas have tried to replace teaching evolution with creation, and put "warning stickers" on evolution textbooks.

Carl Sagan made the same mistake - claiming God wanted man ignorant - and even went so far as to say the tree that bore the forbidden fruit was “the tree of knowledge” when it was obviously “the tree of knowledge of good and evil,” which is very different.