A while ago, someone on this site was suggesting that God made humanity flawed since they were capable of sinning and inevitably sinned. I can't recall who said it. Nor can I be bothered searching to find where it was said. I disagreed with that characterisation at the time and I still do.
Yet, I would like to discuss further on this point.
I have suggested that the Bible expresses that God made humanity "very good". Indeed without flaw. Yet the question continued to be - why create a person who is capable of sinning? Surely God could simply have created a person with free will who can't sin? And isn't that what we see in heaven? People who are free and yet do not sin? And these are fair questions to an extent.
While researching a different topic, it struck me that in our legal system, to be found guilty of a crime requires not just a guilty act, but also an intention. And while this is a truism for the legal system, I think most people in society miss the point that intention forms part of the guilt along with the act itself.
Hence, in most Western Legal Systems, people need to be able to form intent in order to be found guilty of an offence. They need to be mature enough to realise that something is wrong. This is far more than knowing it was "naughty" or even that they might get in trouble. They have to know it is seriously wrong. Hence we typically have an age of criminal responsibility. In Australia that now is 12 years of age although in some specific jurisdictions, it is up to the age of 14.
Now, of course, that age of criminal responsibility can be rebutted depending upon the maturity of the individual child. But it is a legal presumption.
This, I think, is important.
For humanity to be morally responsible for their actions, indeed legally responsible for their conduct, and even to be considered more than an animal, more than a robot, required God to make humanity with certain attributes.
Firstly, they needed to know the difference between right and wrong.
Secondly, they needed to have the capacity to be able to do wrong.
Thirdly, they needed to know it was wrong to sin.
Without any of these attributes, humanity would simply be an animal that works according to instinct. Or else they would simply be a robot who did everything exactly as they were programmed to do. What they couldn't be - would be a moral and personally responsible human.
As our legal systems have articulated in this respect is entirely consistent with how God created humanity.
So the question remains, did humans know the difference between right and wrong? I think the story of Adam's fall clearly shows that he knew the difference between right and wrong. The story itself however muddies the water with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Was it the tree that gave Adam this knowledge or was the tree the provider of something else? Or did Adam know the difference between right and wrong before eating the tree?
I have discussed this at some length on this site with another member. I can't recall where that discussion took place. And I cannot be bothered looking for it.
Yet, at the time I suggested that humanity knew it was seriously wrong to take the fruit from that tree. They know this since they understood death to be a serious implication of it. Eve herself indicated to the serpent, we are not to eat it, even to touch it. Satan of course - suggested God didn't want them to eat it - since they would become like God. The point is - they knew it was objectively wrong to eat from the tree. Why? Because God has spoken and told them.
There is an issue that needs to be discussed that arises from this discussion. How did Adam and Eve become like God? They didn't take on immortality. They didn't take on supernatural powers. They didn't take on omniscience. So how did they become like God? Satan answers that in v.5 and his answer is also deceptive but helpful.
The answer is not that they suddenly became aware of the difference between right and wrong. They already knew it was right to obey God and wrong to disobey God. They knew it was right to eat from every other tree. They knew it was wrong to eat from this one particular tree. And if we are honest with ourselves, knowing the difference between right and wrong in our world, doesn't make us like God. Most of us have been taught what is right and what is wrong. But knowing that doesn't make us like God. Yes, it separates us from the animals who work by instinct. And it separates us from robots who simply do whatever they are programmed to do. But it doesn't make us like God in any manner at all.
So if learning the difference between right and wrong doesn't make us like God, what is Satan saying in 3:5 and what does God himself mean in 4:22? It is the difference between learning what right and wrong is - and knowing what is right and wrong. The Hebrew word for knowing is more than mere academic or theoretical knowledge. We see it used for instance in "Adam knew his wife and she conceived." And also in other parts of the bible that say that these people "knew the LORD". It is a word that means intimate. That goes into experience.
In Religious circles, one of the attributes of God is that God alone determines what is right and what is wrong. Hence, Christians look to the bible as God's words and say - this is right and this is wrong. Not because Christians decide - but based on the view that the Bible is God's words and are therefore truth and the determiner of right and wrong. It is wrong to murder because God says so. It is wrong to commit adultery because God says so. It is right to be faithful to your spouse because God says so. Now I might agree with all of these things, but not because I determined they were right or they were wrong. The State determines laws and as such has godlike powers. The church does the same.
Yet, this is what happened when Adam and Eve took the fruit. They determined, they took on the view to determine what was right and what was wrong. Hence the first thing they did after "their eyes were opened", was to call what God had declared good, "shameful".
This is what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was about. Not about giving them knowledge about good and evil, but the power to determine what it is themselves. That is how they became godlike. And we would agree I think in principle, that the power to determine what is right is much more powerful than simply knowing what is right. The courts of our land determine what the law is - that is powerful. The legislators determine what is right and wrong. That is powerful. But you and me knowing or understanding what the law is - separates us from the animals, but it is not as powerful and comes nowhere close to the power of those who make it and determine what it is.
So, not only did they need to know what is right and wrong, they needed to have the capacity, or the ability to do wrong. If they didn't have this then they could not be morally responsible for anything. Indeed without this capacity to do wrong, they would be nothing more than an animal or a robot. This is what distinguishes humans from animals.
So no flaws, just the ability to do wrong. But alongside that also the ability to do right. The ability to choose right must also imply the ability to do wrong. Unless someone is God or godlike. Then what they decide to do is entirely up to themselves. This is why God is said to be unable to sin. Whatever he does is right. Humans by eating the tree decided they didn't want to listen to God and his rules. The problem of course is they were still subject to God. Hence he threw them out of the garden. They went out and did pretty much what they wanted. Romans 1 gives us a picture of how this has turned out.
It is possible that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is simply giving the knowledge of good and evil to its recipients and they didn't know it was right or wrong to take the fruit. It is possible that God forbidding them the fruit of the tree was wrong too. Some would argue that this is the case. The problem however with that view is culture. And a terrible understanding of the differences between Greek and Hebrew Philosophy and theology and morality. Only a very poor student would come to that conclusion.
The Greeks following Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, held to a view of right and wrong which is very different to the Hebrew view. Right and wrong for them (the Greeks) were like absolute natural laws that existed in form, somewhere, and everyone including God was subject to these objective laws. People who hold to this view are those who want to hold God to account. They think God is subject to the law rather than the source of them.
The Hebrew idea is quite different. It said "All laws flow from the character of God. Hence, all laws are subject to God."
So although the view of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil can simply be understood as them learning what is right and wrong, that requires us to drop completely the Hebrew idea of such things and instead drop into it a Greek understanding. And if we were reading the NT and not the Hebrew, then there is such a possibility, but the Genesis story IS NOT Greek and was written prior to three Greek Philosophers.
The Greek Idea. The Hebrew Idea
absolutes laws God
god law
angels /man angels/man
animals / etc animals / etc
In summary, humanity was not made flawed but rather was made "very good" without any flaws. Yet he was made morally and legally responsible for his actions.