Hi RC,
I'm not sure that your target idea applies, but this is what I know. Eve was not satisfied with the knowledge that she was given by God. God told her that if she ate of the tree, she would die. Satan told her that that wasn't true. She had to test what was the truth.
The desire to discover is not wholly a bad thing. Joseph, when put in the cistern and sold to a band of nomads headed to Egypt was being punished by his brothers. Later we find that Joseph tells them that what they did for evil, God used for good. The internet is a wonderful method by which people can share valuable information with other people all across the globe near instantaneously. However, it can also be used to spread hate, as is the case with many hate-filled sites. It can also be used to spread sexual sin, as in the plethora of inappropriate contentographic sites.
Man, thinking that he is gaining knowledge and understanding, has come up with some pretty wild ideas, especially in this matter of spiritual things. Many religions have a laundry list of major and minor gods that make up their core understanding of such things. Even the Scriptures mention that there was a time that a man would sacrifice his own children to satisfy what they believed were the desires of some of these gods. Man's heart is wicked! Most of us, however, aren't willing to allow that that fact applies to every man.
We look at the acts of horrible murderers and rapists and such and easily identify that person as having a wicked heart, but I firmly believe that our hearts are wicked in each and every one of us, until we come to understand and know God. Even then, according to Paul, we still struggle with the wicked desires of our heart. It has been my experience that once a man is born again, he becomes even more and more aware of just how wicked his heart can be and is. That man begins to see himself as God sees him and he stands crying out to God just as the tax collector did, "God have mercy on me, a sinner."
However, let it be clearly understood that this realization only comes to those who are born again. Paul also writes of those without the knowledge of God. That they do all sorts of wicked things and approve of those who do them. They don't see themselves as sinners! They think of themselves as good people who, for the most part, are doing good work and living a good life. This applies to those in the field of science and those in every other field. They think to themselves just as the people on the plain of Shinar saying, "Let us a build a tower that reaches up to the heavens." They believe they are doing right and they believe that they are gaining great knowledge about the creation. I'm just not convinced that they are.
All I'm saying is that the Scriptures seem to clearly explain that our existence, this realm in which mankind lives, is explained to us as having been miraculously created in a matter of time described as days and confirmed as each consisting of an evening and a morning. It is explained to us that this entire created realm was made by God merely commanding that things be that are not, in a span of time of six days. We are then told that on the sixth day God created Adam and God then delineates the line of Adam's descendants with their years of life.
All of these things taken into account give me an understanding that this created realm has existed for about 6,000 years. But, when I look into the wisdom of man through science, I find that that's considered impossible. But God has told us that He is the God of the impossible. If something did happen that is impossible, then God did it.
How can I explain that the light of distant stars just suddenly appeared spread all across the universe in a moment? I can't. Other than to say that God can do it. How can I explain that the dirt on our entire planet was, in moments, covered with fully formed and mature plants? I can't. Other than to say that God can do it. How can I explain that in a matter of the span of a day the entire universe was filled with every star and planet and asteroid and such that we know is out there? I can't. Other than to say that God can do it.
But, when I read and apply the whole of the Scriptures, I begin to get an understanding of what God is doing. His plan, if you will, for this realm. He created! In a matter of just a few of what we call hours that make up for us a week, all that exists in this realm. I see that He created all of this realm so that a new creature, unlike all the angels that He created, could live and breath and have life within itself to enjoy God and who He is and all that He has done. Another creature, much like the angels, that He would love and have communion with and enjoy just as He does the angels. This creature was to be lower than the angels in its abilities, but no less loved and cared for. And He desired of this creature, just as He desired of the angels, to love Him in return. But just as with the angels, man rebelled against His love and nurture.
God seems to have known that if the angels did, then man surely would. But His plan was different for man. There doesn't seem to be any provision that we are told of in the Scriptures, for an angel, once having rebelled against God, to be made righteous again. However, for man, God had predestined that He would send a Savior and that for all who would repent and turn back to Him, that they could be returned to the fold of the righteous.
So, God began, through the Scriptures and a nation of people that He raised up from among the peoples of the earth, to have His testimony written down. He began that testimony with the account of how He had made everything for us that we would have life. He continued through His testimony to tell us how He had raised up Israel as His people to do His bidding upon the earth. He then tells us, through this testimony, of a way of salvation. Then He completes His testimony to us of how all this that He created in a mere six days, will come to an end just about as quickly. That He will then make everything new again and those who have believed Him will enjoy the eternal life that they were created for. Friend, I believe God!
This realm of existence came to be created in mere moments and it will be brought to a close in mere moments by the power and glory of our Creator, God. For those who have heard His cry and listened to His instruction and made their freewill choice to love Him as our Creator and Sustainer and Provider, they will be given to drink of the fountain of the water of life. There will never more be pain or suffering or tears or crying as we live eternally with Him. Where He will be our God and we will be His people.
When I understand all of this, I have no problem understanding that this realm in which we live; this earth surrounded by the stars of the heavens and all that is in and on them were merely spoken to exist by the power and glory of God who was setting in place an existence for a creature He was to make - called man. Science has done some wonderful things in helping us to gain knowledge of the here and now of our existence, but when science tries to tell us things for which they have no way of proving other than extrapolating the natural properties of things as they exist now back through ages past, and that explanation seems to contradict what God has told me, then I apologize to all those who think of me as ignorant or unwise, but I'm going with God.
Finally, Paul, in the new covenant writings that were being written in an age where much of the 'scientific methodology was coming on line, warns us to not be swayed by arguments that are based on the natural properties of things. Why? Because God does not work 'with' the natural properties of things, but in spite of the natural properties of things. The natural properties of things are what causes life to continue in this realm. That the sun shines every day. That water feeds plants and drives their capillary systems, etc. But when God works; when God sets out to do something, the natural properties of things are out the window.
God bless you.
In Christ, Ted