Friday, February 3, 2017

Genesis and Adam and Eve Revisted




There are now countless books and debates on the historicity of Adam and Eve and are they historical persons or literary fictions or a mix of both? What underlies so much of the problem is many people do not understand the ancient cosmology of Judaism and its theological background for the book of Genesis. Here are two quotes by Michael Flynn and Teilhard De Chardin that cuts through much of the problems and rhetoric over this issue:

Michael Flynn says, "Modern genetics does not falsify the Adam and Eve tale for the excellent reason that it does not address the same matter as the Adam and Eve tale. One is about the origin of species and the other is about the origin of sin."

Teilhard De Chardin, "The first chapters of Genesis is not visual information about man's history but teaching about his nature."

In the end, unless we look within ourselves at our own nature, pride and sin, it will not mean a whole lot of what we think about the first couple mentioned in the Bible either way.