(February 28, 2015 at 3:43 pm)Lek Wrote: Jesus never stated that he believed that all the science and historical events were literally true. He referred to Adam as the first man and spoke of Moses and the prophets as real live persons., which they are.
Stop right there. Now that you accept evolution as a scientific fact, you should learn why there is no such concept as "first man". No such thing. Species are a spectrum of change over time, which I mentioned before, but I don't think you grasp the implications.
We *very very gradually* evolved into homo sapiens. From the DNA evidence, it appears there were never less than 7000 members at any given moment. I'm not a geneticist, but the information is available to be read and researched.
As our species made micro-changes over a large geography and time scale we gradually, via multiple members became what we define today as homo sapiens. There was no boom! Man exists!
That is just a requirement of the fairy tale creation story, without a shred of scientific support.
Quote:Lastly, several of us have asked, but I might have missed your response: how do you reconcile evolution with original sin?
Since the sin of Adam, we have all inherited a tendency to sin. Adam and Eve were the first man and woman. When a fetus develops in the womb, it develops pretty much like any other mammal. This is a process that has come about as a result of evolution. I believe that is the way God intended it to happen. What separates humans from every other creature on earth is that we are made in the image of God. This image is reflected in our souls, and we are the only creatures to be able to possess everlasting life. This soul doesn't come about as a result of natural evolution, but rather as a special creation of God, given directly to us by God. I don't claim to know exactly when and how God created Adam and Eve, but they were the first humanoids to be created in the image of God. They were given eternal life in the image of God and lost it due to their disobedience to him. All other humans from that point forward were born with a God given soul, but a propensity to sin. It's just a thought, but this event could have taken place 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. It seems that up to that time, there was very slow development in humanoids and then an explosion of development after that time in history. While all other creatures go on pretty much as always, man has gone on to accomplish greater and greater things. We are light years different than any other creature on earth and the gap continues to widen.
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See previous response. This could not have happened 6 to 8K years ago. We know with a high level of precision when humans appeared (gradually) and it wasn't that recent. We only accomplish "greater things" in our frame of references. Try and see how great humans do 2000 feet under the ocean.
If you really want to know more about reality, check into the evolution/original sin dilemma. Your explanation is weak because you haven't fully researched and understood what evolution implies. Sure, in a work of fiction you can make up anything you want, but I would hope you would want to know what is real.
The Adam/Eve story is completely at odds with everything we know about genetics, population migrations and our history.
This extract *is* from an expert in the field of evolution and genetics and here's what he has to say:
Quote:Unfortunately, the scientific evidence shows that Adam and Eve could not have existed, at least in the way they’re portrayed in the Bible. Genetic data show no evidence of any human bottleneck as small as two people: there are simply too many different kinds of genes around for that to be true. There may have been a couple of “bottlenecks” (reduced population sizes) in the history of our species, but the smallest one not involving recent colonization is a bottleneck of roughly 10,000-15,000 individuals that occurred between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. That’s as small a population as our ancestors had, and—note—it’s not two individuals.
Further, looking at different genes, we find that they trace back to different times in our past. Mitochondrial DNA points to the genes in that organelle tracing back to a single female ancestor who lived about 140,000 years ago, but that genes on the Y chromosome trace back to one male who lived about 60,000-90,000 years ago. Further, the bulk of genes in the nucleus all trace back to different times—as far back as two million years. This shows not only that any “Adam” and “Eve” (in the sense of mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA alone) must have lived thousands of years apart, but also that there simply could not have been two individuals who provided the entire genetic ancestry of modern humans. Each of our genes “coalesces” back to a different ancestor, showing that, as expected, our genetic legacy comes from many different individuals. It does not go back to just two individuals, regardless of when they lived.
These are the scientific facts. And, unlike the case of Jesus’s virgin birth and resurrection, we can dismiss a physical Adam and Eve with near scientific certainty.
https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com...a-contest/
