My two cents worth:
As we all know, the Garden of Eden story is metaphorical. The meaning behind it is Mankind becoming conscious of Himself and thus entering a different Awareness of Self and Mortality.
It is an unproven assumption that man suddenly achieved a different awareness. We don't know if it was fundamentally different from Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis, or Homo neandertalensis. We don't know if it was qualitatively different from other Apes, monkeys, cats, or dogs. All we know it that we acquired speech long before we became Homo sapiens. Neandertals and Heidelbergs had the same identical FOXP2 gene that is required for vocal speech. We know that many animals understand our language even though they cannot talk (lack the FOXP2).
The Adam/Eve animal would have lived its life as all animals do,
Adam and Eve are mythical or metaphorical. Modern humans are indeed animals. We are not plants, fungi, or bacteria. On the progression from Australopithecus gracilis through Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo antecessor, Homo rhodesiensis, to Homo sapiens was a gradual line over 4 million years. There is no sudden line making two Homo sapiens "human" with umbilical buttons had "animal parents" who likely were indistinguishable from their children.
The line separating human animals from non-human animals is just an arbitrary designation of human chauvinism and narcissism. Genetics, anatomy, and intelligent actions show the idiocy of denying that we have two eyes, a nose, a mouth with teeth, a brain (cerebrum, diencephalon, brainstem, cerebellum, and spinal cord.)
unaware of time and their entropy, unknowing there comes an eventual demise, to them they are immortal.
Animals are aware of time. My dogs tell me they are hungry at approximately 0600, 1200, and 1800. My cat comes in and wakes me up if I am 10 minutes late arising in the morning. They get bored if I spend time on the computer for too long (time.)
Animals are quite aware of our demise. This story is true. A Glascow constable made rounds every day for years with his dog (forgot his name). When the constable died, the dog visibly mourned. He went to the funeral. And for several years he walked from home to his old master's grave lying down and crying.
The significance of eating from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge is this spiritual evolution to that of an animal that is fully aware and conscious of itself.
Bollocks! There is no evidence that there was a Tree of Knowledge. That was a fable to keep people stupid and obedient to the war lord. Spirits were invented by pre-historic men to explain the unseen cause of movement, springs, rivers, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Spiritual belief was not evolution but retro-evolution, and a tool for those in power.
You do not know if we are the only animals with full awareness and consciousness. That defies simple observation. Our awareness, the product of our highly evolved brain, is likely more developed than Chimps, dogs, and cats. But it is blind assumption to assume that before us, animals had no awareness. As a neuroscientist, I have seen powerful high tech studies of consciousness of animals including man.
At Central Washington U. in Ellensburg, WA, USA they have chimps who have learned to communicate with sign language. I know, I visited there and talked to Chimps who asked me to play a game. They were not taught the word duck. They knew signs for water and birds. So when a duck landed near the compound the female chimp signalled "water-bird.
Why are Christians so chauvinistic, and arrogant to think they are so gut damned superior to other life. Gazelles are faster, Elephants are bigger, lions are more lethal predators except for crocodiles, birds and bats can fly under their own power. Your arrogance of superiority is because you refuse to look outside and see the trees.
Amergin
