Humanity is created in the image of God during God's creative time. They had no knowledge of God's redemptive and merciful characteristics, because those were not revealed yet.The only way to reveal those eternal characteristics of God is through a certain tree.
It's hard to sit with this without wanting to yell and scream at a God who would set such a tree in front of us, yet we all know that we willingly disobey, and that we invite separation between us and God.
I've been wrestling with this for a bit. It's difficult.