What about the theory that it was a mushroom that is the fruit of the tree of life?
"And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil She took of the fruit, and him They heard the voice of God"
A fruit which causes one to hear the voice of God would surely leave quite an impression. However, one must ask how the author of the Bible could possibly confuse a fruit with a large, red mushroom. Wasson theorizes that the "priestly redactor" who wrote Genesis was sophisticated enough to realize that A. muscaria is mychorhizzal, meaning that it is dependent upon a coniferous host. The Tree in the garden must have been a conifer, and the Fruit was then a mushroom.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-22 07:58 pm (UTC)"And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight,
and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said,
Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman,
Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall
be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil She took of the fruit, and him
They heard the voice of God"
A fruit which causes one to hear the voice of God would surely leave quite an impression. However, one must ask how the author of the Bible could possibly confuse a fruit with a large, red mushroom. Wasson theorizes that the "priestly redactor" who wrote Genesis was sophisticated enough to realize that A. muscaria is mychorhizzal, meaning that it is dependent upon a coniferous host. The Tree in the garden must have been a conifer, and the Fruit was then a mushroom.
Also here as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil