Intelligence brings Modern Day Conveniences and so many Choices. It brings new tools and methodologies. It brings longer Life for some of Us here. Intelligence brings new methods of Temptations and Deception.
I think the Fruit of Knowledge wasn’t about Good and Evil, but what the effects of Knowledge will be.
Knowledge brings great inventions in making Life better and the capability for many more of Us to live Here. It also brings better methods of Destruction and taking life in Our Hands.
We still haven’t changed to following the rules of Love and what Jealousy does as one of the Ten Commandments indicates.
I think this is especially true with nuclear power. Nuclear power unleashes unfathomable quantities of energy in a short instance. Us humans either have the choice to direct that energy at cities and level entire nations, or put it on the back of our spacecraft and travel across our Solar System faster than ever before. The same could be said for AI, bio-engineering, the internet, etc.
It also brings about a distortion of what it means to be human. God gives all of us worth, and Jesus died for all, but we tend to idolize intelligence, or in some cases make it a demon, and often society tends to value people based on it. The same could be said about “good looks” as well. Have you ever noticed when there is a national story about a missing person, it is inevitably about a pretty (usually blond) college student, never about an obese plain high school drop-out of color who works at the local 7-11?
Sorry, that gets away from your premise, so to get back on track, I still think that story in the garden is more about the obtaining of moral capacity, rather than intelligence, but I see your point. If we look at the rest of scripture, the obtaining of knowledge is seen as good, but dangerous as it must be accompanied by humility, lest pride come with it. And pride might be what is ultimately brings the fall, as that is what makes us think we are little gods.
The album America by America sings “A Baby Boy has got to be Free” in the Pigeon Song. Are We completely Free to Do whatever We want? One of My Brother-In- Laws died during Stent Surgery, did the Surgeons Kill Him, is it Murder or taking a Risk. It’s one thing to tinker as Engineers, Do We ever cross the line to Dis-Please “Our Father” ? I know it’s in the handling of what may be done to Us in Mysterious Ways. I just Believe ultimately in the Granting of Eternal Life to Me somewhere in Paradise.