Genesis 3:2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die."

Reflecting on these words we come to realize something is not quite right.  Although Eve's intention was surely not to lie, she did so by adding to the perfect truth.  I am sure she did so as a matter of self preservation...haven't we all done it?  We expand the boundaries beyond their original confinement just to be certain we don't overstep them.  However, the boundaries God gave were perfect boundaries, within a perfect garden.  The balance of perfection leaves no room for improvement or alteration.  So, what DID God say?

Genesis 2:16 And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

Here we have it...God said don't eat of it or you will surely die.  He didn't say anything about not touching it.  However, in Eve's desire to consciously or unconsciously improve upon perfect boundaries, a conflict arose.  I obviously wasn't in the garden but I could imagine it went something like this.  Along came the serpent and he cunningly engages Eve in a conversation by exaggerating the truth..."Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"  He knew Eve would correct him, which would then turn her attention to the one thing God had "denied" them.  What little convincing it took for her to reach out and touch the fruit. 

What do you suppose was going through her mind as she reached up?  Was she considering that she shouldn't even "touch" the tree, as she had stated?  Was her hand trembling in fear as it brushed the surface of the fruit?  Was there a sigh of relief  that she had not perished upon contact?  Was there a false sense of comfort that if she hadn't died in touching it, then perhaps she could eat of it? 

The snowball effect...she had sinned in her heart to desire it in the first place, followed by a "sin of no consequence", and then a sin of irreversible defiance.  Isn't that the way it goes?  A mere consideration of the consequences...to the toe in the water...to the sinful submersion.  One single action that would remove Adam and Eve from their garden of protection and perfection to Satan's dominion of darkness.  They were removed from a covering of Light that was permeated by a single darkness, to a covering of darkness that would have to be permeated by a single Light.  In a single instant they were, quite litereally, "in a world of sin".