Forbidden Knowledge and the Power of Literacy

In the book of Genesis, the scripture that forbids eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17) appears straightforward:

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

This scripture was never about a literal tree. This symbolic commandment has long served as a cautionary metaphor... one deeply rooted in fear of independent thought and intellectual liberation. Tragically, it has often been interpreted, implicitly and explicitly, as a warning against seeking truth outside of a rigid, sanctioned doctrine... in this case, the Bible.

Such an interpretation, particularly when filtered through centuries of church orthodoxy and political control, has been weaponized to suppress intellectual curiosity. Slaveholders in the antebellum South embraced this mindset with brutal clarity. They feared what might happen if the enslaved learned to read... afraid not of books themselves, but of the liberation reading might provoke. A literate slave could forge documents, plan escapes, and most dangerously, begin to question the legitimacy of their bondage. Illiteracy was a tool of domination, a shackle without chains, ensuring that enslaved people remained dependent, silenced, and subjugated.

"Christianity is the greater shackle, the greater rape of the Black Mind than Slavery ever was." 

In response to uprisings like the Stono Rebellion and Nat Turner’s Rebellion... each driven, in part, by a hunger for freedom and spiritual truth... many Southern states enacted laws making it a crime to teach enslaved people to read or write. These laws often extended to free people of color, reinforcing a racial caste system predicated on enforced ignorance. Knowledge, in these systems, was power - dangerous power - and thus forbidden.

Fast forward to the present, and the sentiment lingers in subtler forms. One political figure, the 47th President of the United States, once infamously proclaimed, “I love the poorly educated,” a remark revealing the persistent utility of ignorance as a political weapon. The less people read, the easier they are to manipulate. The less they question, the more obedient they become.

Yet reading remains a quiet act of rebellion... a workout for the brain that exercises memory, sharpens focus, strengthens cognition, and feeds the soul. In a world where information is power, reading is resistance. It’s not just about books; it’s about awakening the mind and unlearning the lies passed down through silence and suppression. Knowledge has always been the forbidden fruit. It’s time we eat.