An Apple a Day

Did you know what did Edison do when he saw an apple fall from the tree? Nothing, he ate it. It was Newton who thought about gravity when he saw an apple falling from a tree. Got you didn't I ?

Anyway if you look at the world of fruits, apple is the only fruit with so many stories around it. There is even that saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away". I am sure it was framed by apple seller's association.

Regular visitors to my blog know that i am on a diet. The dietitian gave me a lengthy list of vegetables, meat and fruits that i am supposed to avoid. We have apple in that list, i am not sure why. So i was thinking about the apple and since gravity has already been discovered , i had to discover something else.

The first ever known reference to apple was in the garden of Eden, when God advised Adam not to eat the fruit which was in turn conveyed to Eve. Now we don't know whether there was a communication gap between Adam and Eve and the message was not conveyed properly, or Eve was sowing the seeds of feminism by refusing to take orders from a man in fact the only man around. We just know that Eve was lured by Satan in the form of a snake to eat the apple and she gave in to temptation. Then she tempted Adam to eat the fruit and since he did not want to displease her, the only woman around, and being such a sucker, ate the fruit and all hell broke loose. (Feminists reading this post, no offense intended)

This whole episode got me into thinking, why apple amongst all the fruits in the garden of Eden? Why not orange or some other fruit? Why is it in the garden if no one is supposed to eat? Why is gaining knowledge bad? lots of questions. After putting a lot of thought into it, it occurred to me that, maybe its not about eating the forbidden fruit of knowledge, maybe it is something else.

If we consider the scenario before eating the fruit, Adam and Eve were just wandering around happily in the garden, oblivious to the fact they are naked. On second thoughts one can't say they were happy, they were ignorant, ignorant of everything and like they say "ignorance is bliss". So we can say, they were in a state of bliss. Then God chose the most appealing fruit, red in colour and shining and told them not to eat. He could have chosen anything less appealing, because he was the one who created the garden of Eden so he could have put knowledge anywhere else. He didn't have to put knowledge in the fruit, he could have put something else, but he didn't want to make it easy for them because he had to see if they can resist the desire , the temptation, more than eating the fruit of knowledge it is this vice that he wanted to test.

It was a carefully thought and well crafted plan. The fruit was meant to be eaten, the rule was meant to be broken and Adam and Eve were meant to be sent to the earth, but if he banishes them to Earth they will not survive unless they have "knowledge", so he had to put knowledge in the forbidden fruit.

So there you go, the fruit was not forbidden because of the knowledge it contained, but on the other hand the knowledge was put in there to enable Adam and Eve to survive if they failed to resist temptation, the deadliest vice.