>You said, ""Good" does not necessarily mean "perfect". There is no
>biblical basis for the common western belief that Adam & Eve were
>extraordinarily beautiful, intelligent, perceptive, &c. Much less is
>there any basis for saying that they had "perfect genetics" - whatever
that may mean."
Hadn't thought of that! You're right, "good" does not necessarily mean
"perfect." Not the western concept of beauty, but the "perfect
genetics." Are you saying that Adam may NOT have had perfect genetics
but that they were "good enough" for God to declare that "it was good?"
I asked, " Is it possible that God allowed Satan to muck around with
>physical processes as well? Could Satan have distorted the geological record
to put it at odds with Special Revelation?"
>You replied, "This is effect makes Satan the creator of the world as we know
>it, & thus approaches the Manichean heresy, according to which an "evil
>God" is the creator of the (evil) material world. It is a large scale
>version of an extreme idea of original sin which was condemned at the
>time of the Reformation (Formula of Concord, Article I), which said that
original sin was the substance of fallen human nature."
I didn't mean to imply that Satan created the world; that would, as you
point out correctly, lead to an evil material world vs. a "good"
spiritual world. My question was, "could God have "unbound" Satan to
the extent that he (Satan) could distort the geological record?"
>Chuck Vandergraaf