To all scientists, let it be translated not as the tree of knowledge, but as the tree of moral realisation.
The fall is clearly the central philosophical part of the bible about the conflict of being human and to get the understanding of the concept of sin, e.g to claim moral judgement based on ones self. To describe metaphysical concepts in pictures of physical concepts has been one of the great achievements of the author of Genesis in creating a poetic picture of the mind using the tree as the symbol for the concept of emergence including the fruits coming from trees.
Considering that the teachings are meant for children and grownups and the illiterate and the literate alike, when debating it at a intellectual / metaphysical level it is helpful to rise above the tree.
As pointed out elswhere, the fall is a poetic description of puberty, e.g. the realisation of the self that is the requirement for making your own value judgement. The disobedience, e.g. the rejection of authority over the self when it comes to moral jugements is the central teaching here, as the core function that makes up the “self”, the ability to make your independent value judgement from consciousness. In the absence of onmiscience it brings you in conflict with the absolute value judgement as we form our own and unless we realise that discrepancy and thus hand back our self we are living in sin. It is not about disobedience but about authority in the judgement which is not about having children or no or refusing to go somewhere but about moral judgement.
If you are a parent you will experience / have experienced that paternal struggle of your children becoming their own self, how after years of washing them and seeing them naked they suddenly think their bit’s fall off if you see them naked under the shower and want that fig leaf. You will also (hopefully) experience their love after all that struggle of puberty, when they are independent and then realise how different it feels to be accepted by that now independent child “willingly” which only can happen if they are free.
However by separating our self from Gods eternal self makes us a mortal self by definition. Thus our death is not a punishment of God for our disobedience but a logical consequence of our action. God knows the problem and showed us the way back and how to regain imortality in Jesus, to see how we can become one again with God by accepting his authority over us, in suffering and death. Jesus died for us not as a trade deal to make God happy but to demonstrate to us that if we put ourselves back under Gods authority that we can endure all suffering and become immortal by learning to live again in anyone’s heart and give our self back. It is something we learn when growing up by giving our self away to those we love, to our spouse and then to our children to our parents and eventually to our neighbours. And we can only give away our self, e.g. love, if we possess it. Pity on those who think love is about the gratification of the self, to expect to get ones wishes fulfilled as a sign of someone elses love and think it their right to expect to have your wishes fulfilled. But then that is how we teach love in the material world by giving others what they wish for and not what they need.
The big sin of Adam was actually not the one of taking authority over the self, as that in the end is a learning process we have to go through in order to grow up and return to God, but the denial of the being one and not taking responsibility for it, be humble and repentant. Sarcastically said, Men still do what Adam did in the beginning in Genesis 3:12, they blame the woman 
and therefore implicitly God for giving her to him - or for giving us the wrong kind of genes. Funny that, when feminists want to be equal to men, I always wonder why they want to sink that low, and why they do not see that they already are there by fulfilling their own prophecy. They already have become like the ones they aspire to be - by blaming the others
Now moderators, please see the irony in my comments and don’t think I believe all men and women to be like that - have a smile yourself and have a nice day everyone and enjoy the season -ing. Sure God smiles at us as well, as we do when we love your children however silly they can be. It is easier for him, as unlike us he has the benefit of being able to offer us unlimited comfort when he takes us in his arms, a peace that is beyond our comprehension, but not beyond our imagination as we can experience when we take someone in our arms for giving comfort.
Big hug to everyone and thanks for giving us the gift of the hug