All this happened, more or less.

My favorite passage from Genesis(1:2):

And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.

You can almost touch this incredible opportunity to create a whole new world. Days and days of inventive bliss are just ahead of you. This humongous void is about to become what you think it should be. No hesitation. No anticipation of a failure, disobedience, or death. The beginning itself. Oh, man, I wish I were there!

It looks like, according to Torah, that the whole purpose of humanity is to figure out the most efficient way to use the Earth's resources while producing more and more humans. As if The Lord God was trying to figure out how many people can be sustained by the universe he created. So, the people that follows his/her rules have a competitive advantage in the marketplace of life.

It appears that the knowledge of good and evil relates to one's ability to sustain or destroy a particular [eco-]system. For example, the ability to procreate uncontrollably acquired by man and his wife by eating the forbidden fruit would destroy the garden of Eden. It would also remove control over procreation from the Lord God's exclusive domain, i.e. constitute loss of a system control point. From the Lord God's perspective this is evil, because he created mankind, among other tasks, "to replenish the earth". Unfortunately, the system to ensure this outcome without controlling the rate of procreation directly had not been introduced at the time.
From the woman's point of view "the tree was good for food", which is an indication that she was not aware of the impact of her actions on the super-system, i.e. the garden.
also see http://www.livejournal.com/users/watertank/577718.html - "all the impulse of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
On the other hand the act of creation that lasted the first six days was "good" ( see http://www.livejournal.com/users/watertank/571368.html )

- need to consider implications for evaluating control mechanisms, including economic vs moral incentives (see e.g. Freakanomics)
- search for instances of the word "evil" in the Lord God's speech. cf with other occurrences.

And God said to Avraham, As for Saray thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Saray, but Sara shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: and I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall issue from her. Then Avraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sara, that is ninety years old, give birth? And Avraham said to God, O that Yishma'el might live before thee! And God said, Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Yizhaq: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Yishmae'el I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceeedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Yizhaq, whom Sara shall bear to thee at this time next year.

And when Avram was ninety nine years old, the Lord appeard to Avram, and said to him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Avram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

"be perfect", what a requirement! Why does the Lord keep offering his covenant? As if he's desperate for human followers capable of believing in him.

And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach to heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be withheld from them, which they have schemed to do. Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there upon the face of all the earth: and they seased to build the city.

what is there to withhold?

speaking to Noah: And as for you, be fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the aearth, and multiply in it.

note: no different from his earlier blessing to all other creatures (see Genesis 1,22). the requirement to replenish the earth is dropped. did God give up on humans, and/or decided that the new law is sufficient enough to guide them?