(Jan 7, 2022 10:59 PM)Leigha Wrote: [ -> ] (Jan 7, 2022 10:23 PM)Syne Wrote: [ -> ]"Most believers" have not been aware of the orthodox Jewish view, of the creation story being figurative. And even if you want to take it more literally, there's plenty of way to reconcile it with theistic evolution. As the Bible says, one day to god is as a thousand to man (2 Peter 3:8). And if that's true, one day to god could just as easily be trillions of years to man. Plenty of time (6 days for god) for a prolonged theistic evolution (on a human timescale), especially since man wasn't created until the end of that period. Or if you still want it more literal than that, god could have simply created the world to look like it evolved, with lifeforms sharing genetic patterns, etc..
Bolded by me - yes, true. Good points.
I don't think anyone's faith should be in doubt, if he/she believes in theistic evolution.
So, I'd say that theistic evolution takes into consideration that Adam and Eve were the first humans to be ''created in the image of God.'' And the tree of life (eating the forbidden fruit, whether taken literally or figuratively) is what introduced mortality.
Does theistic evolution suggest that before 'the fall,' (other humans existed prior to Adam and Eve) there was immortality? (eating the forbidden fruit caused Adam and Eve [and all of humankind thereafter] to be mortal beings)
Yes, Adam and Eve would have been the first "created in the image of god," which is generally accepted to mean in the image of god's mind, capable of understanding more than just instinctual reaction, including the ability for moral judgement...figuratively granted from the
tree of knowledge. Mortality, or more likely the awareness of mortality, was when they were barred from eating from the
tree of life (I think I may have conflated those two trees as well, earlier).
I'm technically using the term "theistic evolution" in its original sense, where god has a guiding hand in evolution, rather than the modern sense, that god only set evolution in motion. The latter, IMO, isn't as easy to reconcile with the Bible and presumes predeterminism (which has implications for free will).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theistic_e..._positions
Theistic evolution, in any sense, doesn't really speak to the details too much. IMO, the primitive hominids that existed prior to Adam and Eve were not modern humans, capable of moral judgement and the necessary mental capacities. So the Young Earth Creationist objection to death and suffering before the Fall is really only an objection to the death and suffering of animals, which the Bible doesn't say ate of the tree of life.
I think that primitive humans weren't aware of death, so they had no conception of mortality. The earliest evidence of human burials were modern humans. The "image of god," trees of life and knowledge, snake, etc. are all ways to explain this transition to modern humans in a way early Jews could understand, and they seem to have always been aware that it was figurative.
Christianity suffered from a period of having to rely on priests, who could read Latin, Greek, and/or Hebrew and didn't always pass on the deeper theological meanings. They kept it simple and literal for a more simple time and people.