Adam and Eve

[XChristian]

Do most Christians take the creation of Adam and Eve as it is described in the Bible literally? If so we are all products of severe inbreeding, yes?

 

[Chesterton]

Do most Christians take the creation of Adam and Eve as it is described in the Bible literally? If so we are all products of severe inbreeding, yes?

Under what "origin of life" scenario would we not be inbred? Panspermia maybe? Then what about the aliens?

 

[XChristian]

What about them?

 

[BobW188]

Some take it literal truth, others as poetic or metaphoric truth. I don't know what the percentage breakout would be.

 

[OldChurchGuy]

Do most Christians take the creation of Adam and Eve as it is described in the Bible literally? If so we are all products of severe inbreeding, yes?

The argument supporting Adam and Eve as being a literal story is that they started out with a set of perfect genes and chromosones. Thus, they could have numerous children without any concern for genetic problems from inbreeding.

Personally, I believe the story to be symbolic; an attempt by the Jewish writer to show that the entire known universe was the work of a single God. But, I cannot prove it is symbolic any more than one can prove it is a literally true story.

Sincerely,

OldChurchGuy

 

[Bobinator]

The name of that Jewish writer is Moses.

There is nothing in the Bible to suggest Adam and Eve are mythical figures. Even to this day, scientist cannot adequately explain why we die. Nor can they explain why some people die at 70 while another might live to 115. That's a 45 year difference. Huge!

Having said that, if a person can live to 116, like some people in Japan, then why not 120, 135, 150, 400, 750, 900 for that matter? I'm straying a bit from the original thread, but my point is, God is in control of these things. He has the power over life and death, and our gene pool for that matter.

 

[Garyzenuf]

Do most Christians take the creation of Adam and Eve as it is described in the Bible literally? If so we are all products of severe inbreeding, yes?

I guess it would depend on how literal they take the bible as a whole, some more than others I'm sure.

You are an ex-chistian I take it, I was wondering how literal you took the bible, and if you don't mind me asking, why don't you anymore.

 

[XChristian]

I am an open minded and curious person who is surrounded by people of different faiths. I guess it was only a matter of time before I started questioning why one set of beliefs was more justified to believe in then another. God has never appeared to me personally and told me what to believe but I've had plenty of PEOPLE try to tell me whats what. Why should I take one persons word over anothers when none of them can answer my questions with reasonable answers? But of course what I deem reasonable to me is my own personal opinion which can be and likely is flawed in some way. I am only human after all.

 

[Garyzenuf]

I am an open minded and curious person who is surrounded by people of different faiths. I guess it was only a matter of time before I started questioning why one set of beliefs was more justified to believe in then another.

Have you found any such justification?

God has never appeared to me personally and told me what to believe but I've had plenty of PEOPLE try to tell me whats what. Why should I take one persons word over anothers when none of them can answer my questions with reasonable answers?

Perhaps their answers are reasonable, to them.

But of course what I deem reasonable to me is my own personal opinion which can be and likely is flawed in some way.

I think we all believe our personal opinions to be reasonable, thats why we hold them, and finding flaws in them motivates us to find out more about our real beliefs. Never a bad thing IMO.

I am only human after all.

Good starting point.

BTW, did you ever believe the Adam and Eve story?

 

[XChristian]

I have found no justification yet which is why I am Agnostic.

When I was Christian I believed the Adam and Eve story as a symbolic story describing how Man fell from Gods good graces.

 

[aiki]

The other divinely-inspired writers of the canon of Scripture did not take the story of Adam and Eve as poetic or metaphoric. From what they write in reference to these two, it is clear that they believed it to be a literal event. As a Christian, I follow their lead.

Peace.

 

[Tissue]

As a Christian, I recognize that all humans in the past have the same issues I do: faults. I am not perfect, nor do I possess prime logic, and neither did they. Much in Christian history has been wrong, and much is still wrong. This is evident from the many contradictions that have occurred throughout history, even within the tarp of orthodoxy.

Our religion is as divine as it is human. I cannot say whether Adam and Eve truly lived. I can say that many think they have and many think they haven't, and both people on both sides have arguments for their beliefs.

 

[Emmy]

Dear XChristian. I believe Adam and Eve were our proto-types, and after they had disobeyed/rebelled against God, they were banished to Earth. The Bible also tells us how God formed Man outof earth, and Woman from the rib of Man. That could be the answer to no need of inbreeding. We know that God is the great I AM, He always was, and always will be. God is All-Mighty, God created Man in His image, and God is perfect, He is Love, and He wants us back again. Can Man be as God? Man is made in His image, but Man is not God. We have been given brains, we can think, God wants us to use those brains, and choose what we think is right. The Bible is our guide, God`s Word to Man. God will also know whether we truly believe, or just choose what is most convenient. I say this humbly and with love, XChristian. Emmy, sister in Christ.

 

[huldah153]

IMHO, Adam and Eve were real people, but we are not all descended from them. They were only the progenitors of those which the Bible states--that is, the line from Seth, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, all the way through to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Though Adam and Eve themselves evolved just like the rest of mankind.

 

[Bobinator]

Before I became a Christian, my family was involved with all kinds of different religions, because we didn't see God in churches, although we still believed in Jesus Christ. We just believed that there were many paths that led to God. This happened until we saw the power of God in operation- healings and casting out of demons. This introduced us to the truth that the Bible IS the Word of God, because the miracles we saw were not only mentioned in the Bible, but teaches that we too are given the same authority through Christ. This was just the beginning of an incredible journey for us that began in the early 1980's, which would later include visions, dreams, miracles and hearing the Lord speak.

This is what the Christian community lacks, and this is one of the reasons why people become "ex-Christians", because they never have a true spiritual encounter with our Lord. The fault lies with the churches that are not in touch with God to begin with.

When you see miracles that are not possible with science, then you begin to see how Biblical accounts are quite possible with God.

 

[exxxys]

Adam and Eve did definatly not exist. Think about rationally, we would be so inbred.

 

[Bobinator]

Think about the existence of a spirit. The majority of the world's populations believes in the existence of the unseen. That ain't too rational either. Can you conceive the end of the universe, or space? Even science says everything has a beginning and an end. Yet, some believe only what they can see and conceive in their minds, thinking that nothing can exist beyond their current level of understanding, but hide the fact they can't grasp the edge of the universe.

It's far easier to believe that God created man than the scientific viewpoint that life came into being from nothingness. That is what I consider highly irrational.

 

[Tissue]

Adam and Eve did definatly not exist. Think about rationally, we would be so inbred.

Adam and Eve would not have had mutations in their genetic structure, so in-breeding would not have been a problem. Through the various problems in the world typically thought to be generated by sin (for example, a susceptibility to UV radiation), mutation entered the world.

 

[Brian-M]

I'd have thought that the Flood would be a better starting point for this topic. There's no biblical reason to believe anyone else survived the flood, so we would all be descend from the handful of people on the Ark. Not only that, but all animals would be in the same situation.

If mutations accumulate quickly enough for all the millions of species to form in only a few thousands of years, then by Noah's time, nobody could have had perfect DNA.

 

[Subdood]

I am an open minded and curious person who is surrounded by people of different faiths. I guess it was only a matter of time before I started questioning why one set of beliefs was more justified to believe in then another. God has never appeared to me personally and told me what to believe but I've had plenty of PEOPLE try to tell me whats what. Why should I take one persons word over anothers when none of them can answer my questions with reasonable answers? But of course what I deem reasonable to me is my own personal opinion which can be and likely is flawed in some way. I am only human after all.

Well, I think that's a fair question - and a very sage response regarding the possibility your thoughts on the matter may contain certain flaws - or, as is probably more apt - that they just don't have the benefit of all the information at hand (something I continue to discover about my own opinions ).

"My faith" if you will, was a long journey - and for that matter still is. Like you, I can't listen to just anyone when it comes to matters of faith - I need the "right" explanations, explanations that address my issues and my needs - perhaps my personality too. I've been turned off by the outrageous emotionalism of - forgive me - "Jesus freaks" in my youth (the 60's), and televangelists waving green hankies for the supernatural benefits they might conjure up, by silken-voiced preachers, by namby-pamby men who speak wistfully and softly in a pseudo-theological whisper as if that's normal speach, by perfectly coiffed specimens of who-knows-what, by down-right kooks proclaiming Jesus, and miracles, and tongues, and riches beyond imagination, by out-and-out crooks whose only motive was money, and by complete sissies whose only redeeming qualities (in my eyes) was perhaps their sincerity.

One day in college I met an "average Joe" (his name was actually Kurt) who introduced me to some other "average Joes" and an average Joe church filled with normal people and normal issues, normal ideals, normal emotional makeups, normal interests, and normal values. They got me back into reading the bible for my answers - in an objective way, sans the emotional weirdness and subjectivism that still turns me off. I think for the first time in my life I could attach something spiritual and "of faith" to a human being like myself. No one "weirded me out." No one demanded anything of me but my questions; and no one expected anything of me but honest inquiry. I suppose for the first time in my life I was given sanction to actually read the bible like a normal human being. So I did.

I found, much to my amazement, being drawn to a "normal" explanation in the bible what God was like - truly like (contrary to all the oddities I'd experience till then). I found in the bible God revealing Himself to me - not all at once - a little here; a little there. I could ask questions of those I'd met in the church and they helped me, which I appreciated.

Have I ever "seen God?" No. Has God ever "spoken to me" as one man standing before another speaks? No. Has God ever brought thunder and lightning to bear in my walk with Him to demonstrate His reality? No. Has He ever filled me with ecstatic utterances and visions of supernatural glory? No. Has He ever filled my coffers with gold and gems, assuring me of financial security the rest of my life? No.

Has He answered my questions, my prayers? Yes. Was it with such clarity as to avoid being mistaken for chance or circumstance? Yes. Was it in such a way that others might doubt my claims? Sure. Was I tempted to doubt myself that it was indeed His answers? Yup. Did I ever or do I ever succumb to such temptations? Yes.

Do I believe myself a rational person? I do. Can I demonstrate unequivocally to others that God has indeed answered any of my questions or prayers? No. So I'll stop there; but, He did change me. I can't explain it; but He did change me. I'm not the same person I was before. I'm still afflicted with the same temptations, the same weaknesses, the same issues - but He did give me something even more precious (to me); He gave me the ability to say "no" and make it stick. He gave me of His values, which motivate me more and more to want to behave accordingly. Do I behave accordingly all the time? I wish I could say "yes," but I still stumble. Yet, He gave me the ability to say "I'm sorry" and mean it - to want to be like Him, despite the seemingly insurmountable distance between His character and mine.

Is there some mathematical or scientific explanation for the above? I suspect not. Does the above violate Newtonian or quantum law - maybe, though I don't see the necessary correlation. Would I even want there to be a Newtonian or quantum explanation for what changed in me? Somehow I think that would only diminish the wonderfulness of it all. Yet I remain one devoted to rational thought - go figure

I hope someday you find the answers you seek. I wish I had all the answers - the formula, the equation, the "universal theory" to explain God. Many Christians behave as if they do. Many Christians feel the need to explain something of which they only have the barest of actual knowledge. They're not "deluded" or "bad" people per se. We dogmatically produce verse after verse, scripture after scripture as if that were the panacea and solution to everyone's questions about Him. Understand though that in one sense, they're right - we're right insofar as we believe; it [the bible] is all we know about Him - all He's revealed to us. I believe it for the reasons I mentioned above - answered prayers and answered questions, among other things. I confess I used to bang it over people's heads in evangelistic fervor to get them to repent, confess, be baptized, etc. etc. etc.... But then I've had to have my own "come to Jesus" meetings over the years (or vice versa) - to remember and come to the realization that that's not what He did to me, or how He did it to me - been there, experienced that. No, when I was ready, He saw it fit to introduce me to a couple people in my life who loved Him in a real way, who cared enough about the power of His word and His word alone to let it, rather than their zeal or fervor make the necessary changes in my heart.

We (Christians) make mistakes; whether from zeal or strength of belief, sometimes dogmatically, sometimes naively. I guess we're human like everyone else. We aren't always perfect articulators, orators, teachers, preachers - even examples. But most of us are sincere in our love for Him and our belief in Him - whether we can explain it or not; whether it sounds rational or not. Regardless, He is consistent in His love for us and if there's any "glue" holding all this together - that'd have to be it.

I guess for me, that's about as "reasonable" an answer as I can hope to give in such a venue as this. God bless.