I like it you are bringing out one good thing, a central thing.
Still, as you might expect, it isn't the
only key thing that happened in the crux of the story of the Garden of Eden. It isn't
all of the central essense of the story.
You
have pointed out one good thing that happened --
"...first couple graduated from animal status into to fully self aware human beings capable of making moral judgements. This is not an Original Sin story but rather an Original Blessing story that should be celebrated."
That gain in intellectual ability
is a key good change, a valuable change.
It's good to become able to think, to evaluate... So, we agree entirely on that. .
Let's sift through though so see what other deep thing is there.
What could show up in a new sympathetic reading (open to seeing new aspects)?
First, consider as background, that God is the...source of something so fundamental to our nature/self/soul, an essence of our soul one might try to say -- sometimes people find a wording like this: He is the
ground of being.
Like a parent, He is our source, our...original joy and power and hope and springboard.
Far older and deeper of course. Wiser by being. We are like Him, but He is so much older, deeper. Consider how a person like you or me might become in a
billion or
14 billion years, if we make many right choices, and find the best possible things. He is at that level, at least, we could say, for example (like the minimum level, X >= Y).
Now...look at just what happened in the story:
1Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
[this simplistic seeming mistaking of what God had said seems a diversion, but that's not the real purpose of it. The real purpose is already accomplished (!) -- the real purpose of the question is its premise: that (of course) God is being (just like us, naturally) selfish and unfair(!) -- you always knew it! don't be naive! -- because He can....
This premise is the real message of the question.]
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
[yes, it's just like you should have known, God is merely a (immature bully) -- why wouldn't He be just like us at our worst moment? -- and is keeping good things from us just out of selfishness, for his gain at our expense]
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths."
Genesis 3 ESV
If you notice the relational side here, the natural and inevitable gain in intellectual power that is happening is....almost like a diversion, because another profound thing happens.
They get moved from a state of trust in their Parent to a state of seeing their Parent as even less than themselves, a wrongful being that is petty and spiteful, and withholding good things from them.
This can play out in our ordinary lives at times. Imagine 100 young children wanting to drive a car -- didn't everyone when they were 3?
I did.
Now,
even though I needed to be about 5 times as old to be ready, I wanted to already.
When a parent says no, give back that key...
There are many possible responses in those 100 toddlers, to the demand from the parent to give them back the key.
Some could throw a tantrum, some just feel a sense of rebellion....or some might instead
trust and give the key back.
But, imagine if later, another day, the toddler gets the keys again....
Now what happens?
Do they
distrust the parent and go start the car and shift it into drive just like they've seen done?
Well, it's at some essential level about trust.
Does the parent have the wisdom to know whether we are ready to drive in full sized 2 ton hunk of metal that can go from zero to 30mph in seconds, and that can maim or kill....
?
Is the parent wise enough to know, or is the parent just a spiteful bully we don't trust?