Re: [asa] Two questions... (bottlenecking)

 That understanding does not require that a
> single pair of humans be the physical ancestors of all living humanity.
> In fact, the Genesis 2 text itself, if read at face value, suggests
> that Adam and Eve were one among many.
>
> I think that it is entirely consistent with the text (though not
> demanded), to see Adam and Eve as symbolic figureheads and not to refer
> to two specific individuals at all. But again, I see the story of
> Genesis 2 as a symbolic retelling of a real historical event -- the
> entry into the human race of conscious willful disobedience to God, and
> its consequences.
>
> Keith
>
>
I wouldnt terribly disagree as far as the possibilities.

But I'd have to ask whether the breath of life (which I myself take to
be the idea of an infusion of a soul) applied to that entire
population?

Did the entire population walk with God? Or just the one pair?

Did the entire population go naked, then through Eve's sin realize
they were naked and then start clothing themselves? Or was there
then one tribe of clothed humans in a population of soul-less naked
humans?

The real problem here is one must construct a conceptual framework
where the "experience" of Adam and Eve, and their personal walk with
God, is preserved intact and at the same time allow for the
possibilities within biology. The theory of mere symbolism seems,
on its surface, to discard the experience and seems to stop short of
addressing a full and satisfying conceptual framework.
Discarding the experience of Adam and Eve with God is a huge issue.
One must be careful not to do that. It would be be horribly offensive
to great numbers of Christians and I suspect to all Muslims.
That vast gap must obviously must be reconciled somehow in order to
preserve peace.

So, if a scholarly work that addresses such a conceptual framework
exists, it might prove valuable here. I am personally unaware of any
such work, but then again I seldom pay much attention to religious
studies.

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Received on Sun Feb 15 11:19:19 2009