Sin in the Garden

Here is one of the questions for my Bible as Literature class. I thought I would post my response:

Some argue that it was unfair of God to place a tempting but forbidden tree in the Garden; others think it an ideal way for God to get sin into the world without getting His hands dirty. How do you appraise the no-win situation in which God placed Adam and Eve by His apparently conflicting commands?

God is good and cannot do evil. Therefore, He could not introduce evil into the world himself. However, if Adam and Eve did not taste of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, they would have remained in Eden forever in a state of innocence, without understanding good or evil and without raising posterity. Without the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve could not progress.

The main purpose of souls coming to the earth and receiving bodies is to prove themselves faithful to God. Choice is an essential aspect of this testing period. By presenting evil to the world through the tree of knowledge, God gave Adam and Eve a choice between eternal perfection and progression. Thus He fulfilled the necessity of choice while providing the opportunity to bring evil in the world to test the souls of His children.

There must be opposition in all things. Without darkness, there can be no light. In order for there to be joy, one must also have felt sorrow. Without evil, goodness does not exist. God offered the tree as an option for progression, to provide His children with choice and opposition, and I believe that Adam and Eve understood the implications better than they are often given credit for.