Wendee,
Adam and Eve gained the knowledge of good and evil by eating from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:5,22), which doesn't sound to me
like the usual way that gene mutations occur, but perhaps a more detailed
explanation of this scenario would clarify this point.
Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395
On Tue, 11 Jun 2002, Wendee Holtcamp wrote:
>
> 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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