According to my understanding of the characteristics of Satan, he would be smarter than that. In fact, aren’t we always warned about how cunning Satan is? If he isn’t brilliant, than what would be so scary about him? I can’t really picture him as some guy who just doesn’t get it.

“The Great Plan of Happiness”

It discusses the pre-existence and the fall.

“It is obvious that Satan did not understand the plan because he thought to thwart god by making adam and eve partake of the fruit.”

I’m not sure that anything like that is obvious.
Maybe he was part the the plan? Maybe it didn’t matter? Maybe this is all figurative and not literal, and it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans?

The way you interpret the scripture, you’d think you were reading a history book and not the Bible – a piece of literature well know for using allegory.

The plan of salvation could then be instituted or put to work. It has been debated that God already knew the plans of satan and knew beforehand that he would tempt Eve to partake of the fruit and so thus he commanded Adam and Eve not to partake of it knowing beforehand that Satan would come tempting them to partake and thus yeild unto satans will.

It is also debated that even without Satan to tempt Adam or Eve, the plan for man to fall was already in place and that partaking of the fruit itself does not require an evil person to make that happen. After all, they could just make that decision themselves without a person there for that purpose. It is obvious that Satan did not understand the plan because he thought to thwart god by making adam and eve partake of the fruit.

I think another interesting bit is the angle that the fruit of the tree of good and evil was just too irresistable. Sure, they were given a command not to eat of it and in doing so they would transgress the law and sin, but the whole scenerio may be that it was just a matter of time before their natural curiosity overcame them and they partook anyway. Kind of like placing candy in front of a child and then telling them not to eat it and then leave the room indefinately. Only a matter of time and they will sooner or later eat the candy and thus- disobey.

Another thing to remember is that the plan of salvation was already in place before the world was even created and before Lucifer even fell. This plan was also fully understood by all of us before both of those events happened. This tells me that partaking of the fruit/ man’s fall into mortality would happen no matter what irregardless of whether Lucifer fell and became Satan or not.

I think the tendency to believe and pass on this idea may come from a feeling that to admit the possibility of being deceived lessens our respect for Adam or Eve. It may also tie to the desire to present this action as transgression and not sin. Finally, it may relate to a desire to present women as better than men in that Eve was smart enough, even prior to taking the fruit, to understand the consequences and not to be fooled by Satan whereas Adam’s blind obedience was the wrong choice.

In my personal opinion, it does not lessen Adam and Eve to allow for them being deceived. It could be argued that the scriptures are unclear about Eve’s motivation for taking the fruit. Since Satan presented truth and falsity in his argument for her taking the fruit – it will make you wise, it will not make you die – we can’t be sure which part convinced Eve. That’s why I am upset when a non-scriptural interpretation is passed off as the official word.

I see no problem with discussing it. But my question is with all of the different conclusions members have reached are we looking past the mark and trying to expound upon what just isn’t there? Is there enough information in the scriptures to draw a strong and supported opinion on what Eve’s thoughts were in partaking of the fruit? Or are all of us just grasping at straws that fit our paradigm?

It wasn’t meant for us to know the exact thoughts and reasoning

But that doesn’t mean we can’t discuss it. This isn’t gospel essentials class after all.

Are you saying that the thinking has already been done? So don’t worry about it?