Reading the bible 2

My bible reading retirement project for today includes Gen 2 and 3.  It’s unfortunately that the disobedience of Eve and Adam got such bad press.  As I mentioned yesterday where would humankind be if they hadn’t tasted of the forbidden fruit?  We would still be in the womb of the garden and would never have developed from there.  Which leads to the question, did the serpent disobey God or was ‘he’ (is the serpent masculine of feminine or perhaps neuter?) doing God’s will?   God seems to be somewhat divided on his approach to the issue.  He sets up the tree in the middle of the Garden then brings it to the attention of his creation.  It could be that God’s intention was always that Adam and Eve would eat of the tree and would be expelled from the Garden.  Otherwise why create the tree in the first place and why put the Serpent in the Garden.  God must have known the nature of the Serpent whom he created and put in the Garden and that the natural curiosity of his creation would lead them to eat of the fruit.  My understanding of the whole episode is that it tells the story of the development of consciousness in humankind.  We became conscious and were therefore aware that we are separate from nature.  We have been trying to get back to the garden – that state of unity with God ever since.  But the genii I is out of the bottle and you can’t put it back.