Genesis 3:1-5

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Talking animals have always been popular, from Aesop to Get Fuzzy. So, here we have the serpent, a generally unpopular taxonomic order, suborning the greatest crime of all time, the Original Sin. Funny thing about it though -- all he's doing is telling the truth. God has lied to the man and woman, which would be a sin if the serpent were to do it, I presume, but the serpent does the right thing and sets the record straight.

A few other odd aspects of this whole situation, in my view:

• Why doesn't God want the people to know good from evil?
  
• Whatever the reason for this preference, since he does have it, why does he put the tree in the garden in the first place?
  
• If God is all powerful and knows everything, including the future, he already knows how this story is going to play out before he even plants the tree or makes the people. Indeed, he must have set it up on purpose

So, we'll see how he reacts to his own plot.

And oh yeah, how could I have forgotten mention: How does the serpent know the truth about the tree? Evidently God must have let the info slip in one of their late night chats. Also, why can the serpent, among all animals, talk? Obviously, God wanted him to tell the woman about the tree. The whole thing is a set-up.