[GarrisonPrime]

"Pride, and worse ambition."

Essentially, his hubris in seeking to overcome the nature of things. While Satan's sin, in the personified tale of the story, boils down to not doing what god says, "going against the will of god" essentially means being foolish enough to think you can live out of harmony with the natural order of the universe just because you're intelligent and have the desire.

The entire god/adam/eve/satan/christ narrative is essentially a parable to illustrate how the wise, to live calm, harmonious, fulfilling lives, live acording to the Dao, as some in the East would say.

[taneq]

"to overcome the nature of things" Is that... is that not what we do? What sets humans apart from everything else, other than that we recreate the world around us to change the (to us, awful) natural order of things? Living within the "natural order of the universe" usually means dying young, in terrible pain, from things that are relatively easily prevented.

[GarrisonPrime]

Actively manipulating the environment to our benefit isn't necessarily going against the natural order of things.

Killing a buffalo to feed and clothe yourself isn't evil, but slaughtering an entire herd to sell the horn powder to Eastern mystics might be. And you'll be punished by suddenly having no buffalo to eat.

Not the greatest example though. :P