The tree is attractive, not simply because of its outward appearance, but also because it offers the possibility of becoming godlike. Who would not be tempted? Yet becoming godlike here means distorting one’s God-given will into an autonomous willfulness that is antagonistic to God. This is the fundamental and most critical distinction between simple human desire and truly corrosive attachment. The wanting, yearning, longing quality of pure desire is natural and God-given. It is not only necessary for life; it also lends a rich open-endedness to existence, a lack of complete satisfaction that
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