Photo by Patrick McFall on Flickr

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, it’s said. Twisted Trope no. 20 is all about knowing too much, and/or overstepping the mark. In the previous post you were introduced to one of the arch-villains of this story. Hope you guessed his name. He’s a bigger liar than a whole truckload of politicians. He’s even more evil than Thanos, Captain Hook and Adolf Hitler combined, and probably the inspiration behind them all. He’s as bad as (OK, we get it – Editor).

The story tells us that Lucifer was a powerful angel who became too proud, rebelled against God and got evicted from the Big Brother House. Where does he end up? Ironically – but great for the narrative – he turns up down here on earth, where he is able to tempt Adam and Eve to do naughty things that will corrupt their otherwise pure minds.

Adam and Eve live in their garden of Eden, innocently tending to the plants and animals. Basically they are nudist farmers, and they don’t have a care in the world. Eden is paradise. There are no weeds to worry about, there is no sickness, the weather is lovely, there’s plenty to eat and drink, and they can binge-watch their favourite box sets whenever they want (hmmm – Editor). But there’s a catch. God has already told them that although they have free run of the entire garden, there is one thing they should never, ever do, and that is to eat fruit from the ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil’. It’s the one line they mustn’t cross and their friendship relies completely on that trust. Why the tree is there in the garden and why it isn’t fenced off with some kind of force field is baffling. It’s proper asking for trouble.

Lucifer, now for some reason in the form of a snake, totally tempts Eve to eat of the fruit. The Bible never says it’s an apple but Steve Jobs thought it would be a great marketing ploy (surely this can’t be true – Editor). Eve bites a chunk out of the fruit, and calls Adam over to try it too. Suddenly, their eyes are opened, and the gullible pair realise they have done exactly what God told them not to do. They know too much, and now they’re in trouble. What’s worse, they see they literally have nothing to wear. This was in the days before Primark was invented, so they have to make their own clothes (other brands are available – Editor).

When God next visits them for tea and cake, He’s heartbroken to discover their betrayal of his trust, and Adam and Eve leave the garden forever. It’s a double eviction from the Big Brother House. If the snake had legs he would have been dancing for joy, knowing he had poisoned a beautiful friendship. But then God turns to him and shows Lucifer his ultimate destination, which doesn’t exactly involve any ice in his drinks. And they all live unhappily ever after.

Stories like this leave me thinking: what exactly was in the fruit that caused all the problems? And why isn’t it on sale in the shops today? Maybe it was the act of disobedience that was the problem, but why was it called the tree of knowledge of good and evil? What was the knowledge that God didn’t want people to know? Was it harmful for us? Is there such a thing as forbidden knowledge? If there is, what kinds of knowledge should we never be able to access? Would it need to be removed from the curriculum? And if I told you my view, would you Adam and Eve it?

Next time: 21: Hadrian’s busted wall

Previous posts in the #TwistedTropes series
1. Pavlov’s drooling dog
2. Chekhov’s smoking gun
3. Occam’s bloody razor
4. Schrödinger’s undead cat
5. Pandora’s closed box
6. Frankenstein’s well-meaning monster
7. Thor’s lost hammer
8. Noah’s character ark
9. Hobson’s multiple choice
10. Fibonacci’s annoying sequence
11. Sod’s unlucky law
12. Dante’s lukewarm inferno
13. Plato’s empty cave
14. Aladdin’s miserly lamp
15. Batman’s tangled cape
16. Cupid’s bent arrow
17. Fermat’s dodgy last theorem
18. Moore’s obsolete law
19. Lucifer’s idiotic fall

Adam’s poisoned apple by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.