THE GARDEN OF EDEN
In the Jawhist creation story, the walled off paradise was filled with fruit-bearing trees, two of which were marked out. The first was the Tree of Life and the other, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam could eat from all trees as he pleased except for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God then made Eve as a partner for Adam. Originally, Adam and Eve were naked but not ashamed for they lacked self consciousness and were unaware.
A legged snake, acting as a symbol for Chaos, appears in the Garden, a symbol for order. This is the fundamental truth of all existence. Banishing out all external dangers only reveals and magnifies the internal dangers. Being protected from all outside challenges only nurtures incompetence. Perhaps God knew this and created the snake as a way for humans to inhabit the border between chaos and order. There are essentially two choices. The first, to render the human useless by protecting him from all external dangers. Or two, believing in His creation, knowing that man is able to handle the outside evil, now equipped with the Knowledge of Good and Evil, God renders man useful and autonomous by casting man outside.
