It was a test, but if he was omniscient, he would have known the results without having to run it. 😉

If I've learned something from listening History in the Bible podcast is that Yaweh is an asshole and that there are layers of bad translations.

Yeah, that story has a lot of plot holes.

Why are there two different creation stories in the Bible? If Cain and Abel were the first sons of Adam and Eve, how could Cain come upon a city while he was wandering the earth? Why are there two conflicting versions of the Ten Commandments? Etc. Etc.

If you're not looking for a genuine answer from a Christian, skip this.

First thing: the translation of "the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil" isn't really that good of a translation. It's closer to "the right to define good and evil. That means that eating the fruit is basically saying "fuck you, God. Imma do my own thing". That's not how God designed humans to live, and is incompatible to living alongside someone as powerful as God, which is why God told them not to eat it.

But why create that tree in the first place? Essentially, choice. When you're in the supermarket and you see 50 different flavors, but everything is from the same brand, do you really have any choice? Same thing with God. Unless you have the option of rejecting God, choosing to him means nothing.

Don’t try to apply reason/common sense/logic to ANY religion. You’ll end up with more questions than answers.

Besides, I was told that the point of the story was resisting temptation. God wanted to see if Adam and Eve could do that. Spoiler: they couldn’t.

Just to add to the great answers already given by others, another aspect to it all is that the mythology that developed into Judaism/Christianity/Islam was originally polytheistic. The god known as YHWH/Yahweh was one of many, but had a dedicated cult (not unlike Greco-Roman deities that often had cults of their own, revering one specific god to the exclusion of others who were nevertheless acknowledged).

So in that sense, the idea of Yahweh being omnipotent and omniscient is a bit of a retcon, meant to highlight the superiority of Yahweh over other gods as his henotheistic sect gradually developed into a more zealous monotheistic religion that rejected the legitimacy of all other gods entirely

That being said, the idea of Satan as a sort of antagonist character to tempt humans towards sin did not emerge until much later either, after the aforementioned omnipotent/omniscient revision of Yahweh. It really just boils down to whatever plot contrivances were convenient for the successive works of religious fan fiction that would later come to be canonized within each Abrahamic religion.

The usual explanation is because God wanted humans to have free will, so interfering in their ability to self-determine would negate that.

The reality is because it makes no fucking sense, like much of the Bible.

Bad character and plot writing. The Bible was written by hacks and scabs.

I mean the Judeo-Christian god is also omniscient so he did so knowing they wouldn't, meaning them eating the apple was the point in the first place. Otherwise he just wouldn't have created the tree.

PS: I'm Muslim and this story is a bit different in Islam but I'm pretty sure I got it right.

Free will. The idea is that for free will to exist you must be able to choose the wrong action.

If a supreme being rules out all wrong actions or prevented you from taking wrong actions, how could there be free will? How could you even be responsible for your own thoughts and actions. How are you not just a puppet?

Alternately you can think of it as a leveling up. It seems like the Apple is always represented as “knowledge of good and evil”. So originally they’re just animals. They take actions but there is no morality, nothing is good or bad. But if they use their free will to take this one forbidden step, they receive the knowledge of good and evil, they can act good or act bad, they know it’s good or bad, and they have the free will to choose their path. And they are accountable for those choices. Now they’re human

As in all theological questions, it really requires faith.

If you have faith then you don't need to worry about the details.

If you don't have faith then none of it makes any sense.

Aha! The question that has many pastors digging deep to get a good answer too. And usually they end up with the age old “mysterious ways”.

The “best” one is usually along the lines of: god wanted a relationship which involves choice and free will, so he had to create a division that would allow humankind to have a choice in the matter.

So god feels lonely, causes all misery on earth that ever was and ever will be. Because free will… On top of that he also indirectly (oh screw it, it’s god) directly causes eternal torture in the afterlife for a vast majority of humankind. Because also, free will (I keep stressing that because that in itself is a huge problem for theologians).

And then all that leads to god killing itself in the form of its own son. Because some of you touch your own genitalia in glee.

Genius.

It's a judeo-christian-muslim god.

Because that god is a crazy tyrant that had to prove he had total control over his creations (despite giving them free will), and threw a tantrum like a child when they disobeyed. And we have another example of his childish tantrums when he flooded the world because his toys weren't playing the way he wanted.

It explains a lot of why Christianity is so fucked up

And while we're at it, wouldn't the Reality Stone trump all the others because reality is all there is and contains everything the other stones represent?

God is also supposedly an all-knowing being, while at the same time excuses his shitty decisions and faulty creations with not being responsible for men's actions and decisions, and also free will is a thing.

Pick a lane. Either god is all-knowing and knows what every single human being who ever lived/lives/will live did/will do in their lifetimes and free will is an illusion, or he's not an all-knowing being.

Or... hear me out on this... He's not real! Crazy, I know.

And if Yahweh is omniscient, he knew they would eat it, so he put the situation together so that they could be "punished",

Yahweh is a sadist.

Just some light tomfoolery.

Do you want snakes with legs? Because this is how you get snakes with legs.

Ah the good old epicurean paradox :3. The christian god can't be all loving, all knowing, all powerful, and all present all at once, otherwise the whole religion makes no sense. If you solve that one you may become the new messiah, but otherwise the answer is "no reason" because none of it makes sense

Original scapegoat

Christianity is only one of the many interpretations of reality. Not reality itself. Other doctrines like gnosticism, hinduism, etc... Will give you another view.

same reason you can have anal sex and still be a virgin!

Because he gifted humanity free-will? I thought that was like the main reason