Remember the end of Genesis 2? Adam and Eve were both naked and yet felt no shame. Innocence and purity. No guilt or embarrassment. Total harmony with God and with each other. God didn’t want them to be His robots so He gave them free will. Next is Chapter 3. EVERYTHING changed and the universe opened up to endless possibilities.
According to the story, the serpent (i.e., Satan) asked Eve a simple but provocative question, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Satan put a tiny bit of doubt in Eve’s mind -- could she really trust God?
When she responded, she embroidered God’s command a bit, “Well, God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'” (Umm, God hadn’t actually said anything about touching the fruit – just eating it.)
When God confronted them, the blame-shifting began. Adam blame-shifted twice! — he blamed God and Eve (“The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it”). Eve blamed the serpent (“The serpent beguiled me and I did eat”). From that day on, the tendency of humans, when confronted with their sins, is to find someone else to blame — God, Satan (“The devil made me do it!”), or some other person (“Bobby made me do it!” or “She started it!”).
Eating the forbidden fruit, an act of their own free will, was what gave Adam and Eve the knowledge of evil. Was there really a serpent (Is Satan real?) or was that merely Eve’s blame-shifting?