Jim wrote:
> At any rate, I'm going to begin the (painful?) updating of the Adam
> section of the Genesis in Question website. I don't always
> get pleasant
> responses when I suggest that Adam was the first "of the
> chosen people,"
> but not the first "technical human."
This isn't what you asked, but, as I'm sure you're aware, there are a number
of different possible scenarios with the first Adam given an evolutionary
creationist perspective. You give one. Another related but not exactly the
same is that Adam was the first that evolved Spirit or consciousness. I
believe that Spirit is obviously spiritual, and consciousness is probably an
evolutionary relict but I see the two as related. In the garden of Eden
story, it speaks of Adam and Eve as becoming aware of good and evil --
something I think of as consciousness. In this way, we are different from
all other created things, and "like God." It could have happened in one gene
mutation, so there could literally have been one literal Adam. Personally if
such a thing did indeed happen, then I believe God was also behind it. Such
is the "punctuated equilibrium" Gould proposed. (ie major evolutionary
change happening in short periods of time, rather than longer, gradual
changes). The evolutionary leap to consciousness could have also happened
more gradually, in which case finding a literal Adam is more difficult.
Adam could have been a Neanderthal man as I think Glenn proposes, or he
could have been a modern Homo sapiens or anyone in between. I think its
important that we don't know, and that there are many possible scenarios
each with their own theological dilemmas.
My 0.02, Wendee :)
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