Convince me that Adam had paternal and maternal grandparents, never mind about Eve but if you come up with something better than God , do hardly anyone believes Adam was a Neanderthal, yet many of us are aware that other types of humans have v existed as shown by bones.
We know what He taught.
We know He referenced Adam and Eve "from the beginning."
We know He referenced Able as a real person.
We know He referenced the flood as a real event, mentioning Noah by name.
We know He said in the latter days there would be scoffers.
I do not think that any theory of science trumps the word of God. I accept that the Bible tells the story of creation and that after that the species diversified.
I know there are Christian scholars who try to justify the mutually exclusive explanations for the origination of man, but one cannot believe in two opposing things without compromising them both. Evolution demands that adam never existed.
Many of us that believe God created all that is believe He created the laws of nature, because we believe He is the creator of all that is.
Did you get what I'm saying there? Because He is the Creator, He created physics!
We expect that His laws of nature -- chemistry, physics -- work well, function fine, because He made them.
Physics works, chemistry works -- without a need for constant effort from God we think.
So, since His nature already works, then it's only a question of when He intervened, and we only have the broad brush stroke description in Genesis.
It's important for any believer to realize Genesis chapters 1 through 3 are not about trivial history, but about profound things, like whether we trust God (Eve and then Adam failed to!), the the consequence of not trusting God. Just an example of the profound level of meaning in the text, written for us, to teach us crucial things.
Crucial things, not trivial stuff like precisely how old the Earth is, which is utterly trivial in comparison!
But you wonder if we believe in God!!??!! Here -- I believe God didn't have to make a special gravity to pull Earth together, because He made physics/gravity already, before the Earth, and it already worked. See?
Do I believe God made modern men? Yes. My belief is one of many diverse examples of how individual people believe in God the creator.
For example, just one example only of one person's view -- I believe God let nature unfold by His laws of nature, by His design, which He created, and it led to various human types, like Neanderthals. Neanderthals evolved over time through evolution by God's perfect laws of nature which He created.
But for us modern humans, there was an intervention, I think. Thus Adam and Eve.
Now, my view is not the only view any real believer has about details that are not in the text, like timing, and how Neanderthals arose, etc. It's just one view.
But, turns out that doesn't even matter at all.
We learn from Christ to never base our faith on some ideas, even doctrines (!), but that there is only one solid foundation for faith, and not any other --
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Christ, our Lord. Matthew chapter 7
See, believing in any particular version of details about creation as a basis for the very foundation of faith itself is a foundation of "sand", Christ says to us.
The only "rock" that we should base our faith on, He tells us, is to hear His words and put His words into practice.
Not any other basis of any kind is sound. Not any version of creationism, not even any doctrines churches have, none of those. But only hearing and doing His words to us.
.. But not just the T-Rex but many examples from all over ..
Yes, that's exactly right. I'm also a witness also of the laws of nature overridden by His intervention on a direct personal level.
