Thank you for interpretative question, “When Adam and Eve first ate the forbidden fruit, could this situation ideally be the situation which gave humanity the intelligence to eventually do genetic manipulation
The question is one of speculation so the answers given by respondents are only conjectures. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, their human intelligence degraded since they now know what is good and evil. They were able to moral judgments of godly or ungodly choices, seeing and perceiving the good or evil that will come from their attitudes or actions.
As a speculation, God gave Adam and Eve the power or right to rule over the animals. What does the ruling of the animals on earth would be like? It may include the ability to observe animals more carefully and understanding the animals actions and reactions. If Adam and Eve didn’t eat the forbidden fruit, their knowledge of the animal kingdom would have grown substantially for they will be learning every time they observe the natural world. They would be learning how to relate and rule over them.
The question would be if they would have learned crossbreeding of animals? I would think so as they saw animals being reproduced just as humans have observed crossbreeding of plants and animals.
It is unlikely that Adam and Eve would have known about DNA/RNA as we do in our contemporary time. The genetic manipulation would be beyond their scope of understanding but not genetic crossbreeding. It is God who is able to genetically manipulate to create animals from the ground and Eve from Adam’s rib.
SUMMARY: It is unlikely that genetic manipulation started with Adam and Eve, but genetic crossbreeding is more likely. That’s just a personal opinion, not a biblical dogma.
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