Lord God said, Behold the man has become as one of us, to know good and
evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of
life and eat, and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth
from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So
he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden
cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of
the tree of life."

According to this account the promise of the devil was fulfilled to the
very letter. Adam and Eve did not die, and they did become as gods,
knowing good and evil. The account shows, however, that the gods
dreaded education and knowledge then just as they do now. The church
still faithfully guards the dangerous tree of knowledge, and has exerted
in all ages her utmost power to keep mankind from eating the fruit
thereof. The priests have never ceased repeating the old falsehood and
the old threat: "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die." From every pulpit comes the same cry, born of the same
fear "Lest they eat and become as gods, knowing good and evil." For
this reason, religion hates science, faith detests reason, theology is
the sworn enemy of philosophy, and the church with its flaming sword
still guards the hated tree, and like its supposed founder, curses to
the lowest depths the brave thinkers who eat and become as gods.

If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all,
to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first
advocate of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper
in human ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the
author of modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress
and of civilization.