If you could be so kind as to answer the following questions with a yes/no answer that would be great. I ask these questions because I've been taught in a Christian school that every major event in the Bible actually occurred here in reality exactly as it is said in the Bible. I just need to separate factual from fictional.
1. Were Adam and Eve the first two humans to exist?
2. Did a universal flood that covered the entire earth actually happen?
3. Did 600,000+ people escape slavery in Egypt according to Exodus?
4. Was Jesus born in Bethlehem?
I might add more later.
In a big picture, human history as a whole is a result of human witnessing. That is, it is safe to say that most history (= his story) is not backed by evidence. We examine the credibility of history documents by giving credits (or rather putting faith on) to those who wrote them in a fashion supported by their sincerity and by a multiple account witnessing.
To simply put, history has no evidence. The more distant history is, the more that it is so (not evidence based). This is the very nature of history itself. And the truth of history relies on where you put your faith.
That being said;
1. Were Adam and Eve the first two humans to exist?
Why not? Even when you assume that our world is a result of evolution. If God chose to drop Adam and Eve among all the evolution organisms, then how will you be able to distinguish?
2. Did a universal flood that covered the entire earth actually happen?
Human knowledge about the types of catastrophe is limited. We have only a window of less than 500 years through which we try to take a look at a presume history of billion years. We can't say for sure what kind of catastrophe even occurred in the past billion years (if planet earth is actually that old). We developed our technology only in the past several hundred years for our arrogance to say that "We humans already know all kinds of catastrophes, and to conclude that it is impossible for a 'Noah flood' to occur."
To me, the Bible only recorded down what Noah saw. We may not know what the catastrophe actually is (unless we experience it the second time, or better, when God tells us what happened).
3. Did 600,000+ people escape slavery in Egypt according to Exodus?
Why not? Unless you apply the fallacy of "the absence of evidence is the evidence of absence."
4. Was Jesus born in Bethlehem?
Again why not?
