Trees in Eden (according to the story). I was listening to something discussing why there is death in the world and the familiar story about the Garden of Eden popped up. We'll skip over the obvious "how did they know it was 'bad' if they hadn't eaten from the tree that grants that knowledge yet" thing to hit on the second point that has always bugged me and got me in trouble a few times in Sunday School, the second tree. According to the legend, there were 2 trees that were special. The second of these trees was the tree of life. Not such a big deal in a world of magic, but the implications are huge. In Gen 3, it reads:
22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand rand take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
Now wait a second, I thought that eating from the first tree was the original sin and that the wages of sin are death. Not only did Adam and Eve eat from the first tree and not die (ok, there was a "spiritual death" in apologetics), but there was also a way to escape this death and still have sinned. If they had eaten from the tree of life, they would have been immortal. Reread the passage above, the godhead here was clearly afraid that they would eat this second fruit and become like gods.
The more I read this, the more I think that even Sauron is not this much of a jerkwad. Maybe Melkor is, but probably not.