Yes, you read me right. The front page story of the Tennessean today is about whether or not Adam and Eve were real. I guess there’s not much going on in the world, huh?
Interestingly, the article quotes a prof from Point Loma Nazarene University (a college I’ve actually visited being ex-Nazarene) who believes in and teaches evolution. He’s also the president of a nonprofit group called BioLogos Forum which seeks to reconcile faith and science. He said, “There is more diversity among human beings than we can account for with a single couple.”
What he says makes sense. How could the entire world population come ultimately from one couple? At no point in the article was it mentioned that the Hebrew word “adam” actually means “mankind” (not necessarily just one man) and comes from the word that means dust or earth. When my husband teaches his ninth graders about Old Testament, he teaches them that what the stories tell us about God are more important than the details of the stories themselves.
It is true that the Adam and Eve story is a key theological piece of Christianity. God created humanity as special and unique, and He created humans to have a relationship with Him. Then they broke that relationship. The Bible clearly teaches us these lessons; therefore, why debate the accuracy of the minute details of the story?
Another theologian that was interviewed agreed: “The only thing I can say is that it’s very curious, when the world is in such a dangerous mess, that American Christians should be worrying about Adam and Eve,” said N.T. Wright, a theology prof in Scotland.
Here is what I believe: God made the world. (Could He have used evolution? Possibly. That’s another post, though.) God made humans as special and different from animals, desiring their love and companionship, but creating them with free will. Humans broke that relationship through disobedience, and it is only through Christ that the relationship was restored. Christ taught us to love our neighbors, care for the poor and needy, and live selflessly. That’s probably what we need to focus on.
In all actuality, the bible teaches that all humans on Earth are descended from Noah’s family, and thereby related. According to Genesis 10, Noah had three sons: Ham, forefather of the southern peoples (Hamitic) Shem, forefather of the middle peoples (Semitic) Japheth, forefather of the northern peoples (Japhetic Eurasia) If humankind would accept in our hearts that no matter the color of our skin, the language we may speak, the country we where born in,or God we may or may not worship we are all brothers, it would me easier for us to love our neighbors, care for the poor and needy, and live selflessly.