Ok I'll type this slowly.
I want Dicky to give us alternative interpretations of the Adam and Eve story.
I have heard of two alternative interpretations:
1: That it is the story of humanity stealing intellectual ability from God. In other words an antitheist fantasy.
2: That it is the story of the discovery of what jews would call ''Chutzpah'', a cheeky audacity. In other words mankind is a kind of confidence trickster.....and only a criminal would take pride in that.
As we were saying lord knows when. Can't think why you want to hear
my interpretation of the story. I don't consider the story of any great significance in itself these days, apart from the fact that St Paul gave it significance and his (and St Augustine's) interpretation has had considerable influence on western history.
The two interpretations you give are typically slanted. You've missed out the obvious one adopted by the Ophite Gnostics* (I suppose you'd say that was an antitheist fantasy - except of course the Ophites did believe in God; just not the one to whom you apparently pledge allegiance). The Ophites' interpretation had the obvious advantage of actually being true to what the text actually
says namely that
God lied, and the serpent told the truth.
Of course, I don't believe that interpretation either. There's a wanky, pseudo-intellectual one I could give you: several million years ago, our apelike ancestors of the Miocene age lived in happy union with nature, eating bananas and other veg in the African forests. Then, either a few got cut off from their original population and had to strike out for themselves on the open savannahs. Or maybe, there were a few enterprising and curious geniuses who decided to seek pastures new. These soon found that their original sense of unity with nature was lost. And so on through Australopithecus Afarensis etc.
However, neither the latter nor the Ophite explanation have anything whatever to do with stealing or crime, which you seem fixated on.
As for confidence tricksters, you might just be acquainted with the story of Jacob, the confidence trickster par excellence. Yahweh rather
liked him, I think you'll find.
*The Gnostics in general didn't like the Old Testament god, considering him evil and ignorant. I find this attitude (and the similar attitude of Marcion) very wrong-headed too. I find this kind of blanket dismissal by certain posters here just as silly. The OT includes some of the most inspiring writings in existence - as well as some of the most disgusting and boring ones.
I don't include the Adam and Eve story among the inspiring ones.