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Originally posted by Salty Dawg:
I think that much of the Old Testament is stories being passed down from folks trying to explain stuff they couldn't (and we still can't) comprehend. I don't think it makes any sense to treat stories like Adam and Even, 200-year old (or whatever it was) Abraham, Noah and the Ark, etc. as historical accounts.

That is the way I see it. Maybe there was someone who is our Abraham or Moses - but I don't see an actual parting of the Red Sea as a real thing, just as an example of something that isn't literally true.

The original creation story sounds like so many other creation myths in so many other cultures - the stories of primitive peoples trying to explain what they can't possibly understand. Not that myths aren't important - they are super-important. They just don't have to be literally true.

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Originally posted by airsoft guy:

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Originally posted by zipriderson:

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Besides, I'd rather not think that we must all be the product of incest.

Yeah, the monkey sex theory is better

That's not quite how evolution works.

Hence the winky smiley face I used.

Why did I think that this was another thread started by jaaron11…

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Originally posted by zipriderson:

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The bible is a very old book, and many parts don't hold water. Like the Ark.

Pun intended?

Maybe Noah was an Arkwelder.

So, God created Adam & Eve. They had two sons; Cain & Abel. Cain killed Abel, leaving Adam, Eve and Cain. How did these three people spawn the entire human race?

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Originally posted by dan03833:
So, God created Adam & Eve. They had two sons; Cain & Abel. Cain killed Abel, leaving Adam, Eve and Cain. How did these three people spawn the entire human race?

There were daughters also born to Adam & Eve who were married to Cain & Abel. Seth was another son, but that's not the one you're asking about.

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Originally posted by dan03833:
So, God created Adam & Eve. They had two sons; Cain & Abel. Cain killed Abel, leaving Adam, Eve and Cain. How did these three people spawn the entire human race?

I think that Adam and Eve got busy with making other children besides those two.

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Originally posted by JohnV:
The Bible claims it is the inspired Word of God. If the story of Adam and Eve is not correct, then the entire Bible is not to be trusted and Jesus was a liar. I believe the Bible is true.

Jesus spoke in parables. Why wouldn't the bible also be?

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Originally posted by patw:
I believe it 100% on faith. It is much easier to think we are made by design than evolving from slime.

Now compare evolution. It is a man made theory that has also never been proven. How many times have the greatest minds in their time, were proven wrong over and over again- ie, the world was thought to be flat, Earth is the center of the universe and everything revolves around it, the atom is the smallest thing,etc.?

You either believe in the bible events or you do not,there is no middle ground. I agree there are lessons to be learned but to pick and choose what you want or that you feel is real, is your decision and you will be accountable for it and no one else.If I am wrong,what have I lost? On the other hand, if I am right, what do you have to lose?

There are many "religious men" throughout history and many were not very Godly. Someone mentioned Olsteen but he is most definitely not a Godly/Christian man by any means.

Actually, the flat earth thing and earth-is-the-center-of-the-Universe thing were once scholarly religious - essentially literal - interpretations of Biblical passages. So there's that. Galileo called and wants his house back. And the atom was in fact the smallest thing we could detect at the time, but have subsequently been able to parse it into even smaller bits because, well, science. It is in fact still the smallest discrete piece of a specific element.

The primary reason I post questions like this as Internet polls is because of the convenience and no one needs feel any obligation to reply if they are uncomfortable about revealing their beliefs one way or the other.

And as for my motives, and despite such a poll’s results being from a highly limited self-selected group of respondents, I still find them of value to me. On the one hand, many liberal (not necessarily leftist) religionists claim that few people these days take Bibles literally. I.e., they believe that most Christians (and Jews as appropriate) consider things like the Adam and Eve story, Noah’s ark, the parting of the Red Sea, and even miraculous accounts in the New Testament to be nothing more than allegory or metaphor at best, and obvious myth at the other extreme. So seeing that even a small absolute number of respondents say, “Yes, I believe it literally,” demonstrates that, “Oh, no: No one believes those stories any more,” is simply not true.

But more important to me is the question of why so many people believe things that I do not. I am sincerely interested in what life experiences and other factors lead to such different beliefs, because a wide variety of beliefs are not limited to religious matters. The question therefore has vital implications for all aspects of our lives. The poll itself won’t answer that question, but it gives me something to consider in the inquiry process.

I will say that I believe in the Bible and Jesus Christ.

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Do you accept the Adam and Eve story of the Bible?

Yes, I do.

And, not sure why I need A&E to tell me something that is already written in the Bible.

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Originally posted by arcwelder:

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Originally posted by JohnV:
The Bible claims it is the inspired Word of God. If the story of Adam and Eve is not correct, then the entire Bible is not to be trusted and Jesus was a liar. I believe the Bible is true.

The words of Jesus are not invalid just because Adam and Eve is fiction. Nor do those words
validate the creation story. The bible is a very old book, and many parts don't hold water. Like the Ark.

Well then, it should be nothing but mere child’s play for you to PROVE a single contradiction or error in any of the 66 books of the Bible.
Right?

I'm definitely not up on more recent Christian world viewpoint vs. the times we're in, but a postmodern society where there is broad skepticism toward religious belief, its not surprising to see people's doubt increase.

Its also another influence when evolution is taught and supported as fact in schools vs. divine creation being ignored, among other things.

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Originally posted by sigmoid:

Well then, it should be nothing but mere child’s play for you to PROVE a single contradiction or error in any of the 66 books of the Bible.
Right?

Again I will ask: where did Cain's wife come from? The record is incomplete. It does not prove it false, it merely proves that we do not and cannot have the whole story.

I went to a Catholic school. I remember, like yesterday, the day a nun said, “Who knows how long a day was then,” in response to questions surrounding evidence of evolution. Do I accept the story of Adam and Eve? Probably not, but I haven’t really thought about it in a long time.

Has the OP answered his own question? I think it’s important that those who pose questions like this do, in fact, put themselves out there too

The Bible as a historical text has many inconsistencies that have been argued and pondered by religious scholars over centuries - in fact, since the collected works were assembled into "The Bible" - and there is no one "version" of the Bible. The inconsistencies have been both internal and with the originating documents, like the Torah. Multiple translations, multiple authors, and multiple periods of time and place have compounded these. For a single literal example, the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke in the King James version each give a different genealogy of Jesus - different names, different generations. Taken literally, they can't both be right. That doesn't make it less of a book to be revered, or less true, or less valuable for man trying to comprehend the incomprehensible. And aside from actual contradictions, men of faith can interpret different meanings in the same text, hence, Churches. If the Catholics are right, can the Baptists be? Or Episcopalians? Wars have been started over same. It is a puzzlement.

Yes of course. It's part of God's Word inspired by the Holy Spirit penned by men at the right time, and preserved amazingly by God to be brought together right after the invention of the printing press so it could be distributed to the people. Don't take away from it or add to it. That's not good.
This is what I believe.

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Originally posted by bobtheelf:

Again I will ask: where did Cain's wife come from? The record is incomplete. It does not prove it false, it merely proves that we do not and cannot have the whole story.

Answered you on page 2.

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Originally posted by soflaac:

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Originally posted by bobtheelf:
Where did Cain's wife come from?

Cain's wife was his sister, there isn't a whole lot of room for a different explanation.

Yes. And there are many things that we just can’t fully understand as humans. And all those who point to “science” should realize many things in the Bible have been proven by those scientist.