They were allowed to stay there on one condition, and that is that they didn't eat of the tree of knowledge. That has been the condition of the Christian church from then until now. They haven't eaten as yet, as a rule they do not.

Darrow uses the Genesis story of Eden as a pointed metaphor for what he saw as organized Christianity’s suspicion of inquiry. By equating the Church’s “condition” with the prohibition against the tree of knowledge, he argues that religious authority has historically demanded obedience over intellectual independence. The final jab—“They haven’t eaten as yet”—casts the Church as willfully ignorant or actively discouraging learning, especially in matters where science, criticism, or free thought might challenge doctrine. The remark fits Darrow’s broader public persona as a skeptical, anticlerical defender of secular education and rationalism, often framing conflicts over belief as conflicts over access to knowledge.