'Which is as Fate to all Things Else’

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by narfforc

I went with the first option also. Mainly due to the Judeo/Christian belief that God gave independent thought and choice to Adam. That choice which some call concience and the knowledge of good or evil, but which allows you to choose either path and be judged accordingly.

Well, my comment isn't so much related to Tolkien as to narf's comment that God gave knowledge of good or evil to man. Maybe I'm reading narf's line wrong--which could easily be the case--but my understanding of this belief system which he mentions is that God set up one restriction, which was that man was not supposed to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So, the independent thought was not between good and evil, but between to eat or not to eat. At least originally wasn't that the choice? After all, were Adam and Eve aware of what the consequence of the choice was, other than simply disobeying the injunction? I mean, they couldn't have known what the difference meant--having not eaten the fruit--before they ate the fruit. Right?