Q. So why will some scholars still see value in an ancient Adam and Eve? Why do you think they take this path? A. In view of reception history, an ancient Adam and Eve seems like a “wrong-turn.” It seems to have arisen only in response to an erroneous understanding of science. The monogenesis tradition focused on original sin and Romans 5:12-14. The doctrine is not grounded in the Image of God, but rather about humanness in the distant... Read more
Q. One of the issues I have with Bill Craig’s fine book The Quest for the Historical Adam is the willingness to take a text like Gen. 2 as basically myth, with the exception of there being a real historical Adam and Eve at some point in antiquity. He’s willing to basically dismiss the social ethos of the text which suggests a rather recent Adam and Eve during an era where religious sacrifices were offered and crops were grown, in... Read more
Q. One of things you do not discuss in your book is the fact that the vast majority of the Bible is not about all human beings and all of history for that matter, it is about the origins of God’s people and their history including salvation history. People such as the Philistines or Hittites of the OT or in the NT the Greeks or Romans only come into the picture insofar as they come into contact with God’s people.... Read more
Q. On human evolution is where your contribution to the discussion is helpful in various ways. But you seem to be saying that evolution applies to ‘humans’ outside the garden of Eden, but not to those inside it, not to Adam and Eve about whom you use the phrase de novo creation. I would suspect that your fellow scientists who are not Christians would call this special pleading. How would you respond to that critique? A. My colleagues,... Read more
‘Dreams make good stories, but the only thing that matters is what happens in the real world’ says Duncan. Well, not actually since dreams often foretell the real world, or even guide the actions of those in the real world. There have been attempts before to adopt and adapt the complex sci fi novel of Frank Herbert before, for instance in 1984, which had a young Sting in it, and frankly was not all that great. Hard to believe the... Read more
Q. Let’s talk about evolution for a bit. While it may seem redundant, the truth is that evolutionary science has itself evolved over time. Darwin’s early reflections on Origins morphed into some different reflections in later iterations of his work especially in the way he reflected on God’s role in the whole process, and it is true as well that evolutionary science continues to develop. It seems to me that for most conservative Christians whether Protestant, Orthodox, or Catholic, micro-evolution... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In