Denis in Dialogue

Kenneth Hynek • 14th Nov 2008 • Religion, Evolutionary Creationism, History, Religion, Theology
Adam and Eve, Amazon.com, Book of Genesis, Denis O. Lamoureux, faith, firmament, geology, George Murphy, God, Holy Spirit, NASA, science, sin, the Bible

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My former professor, Denis O. Lamoureux, offers up his thoughts:link-icon: in a discussion of a recent paper by one George Murphy: Roads to Paradise and Perdition: Christ, Evolution, and Original Sin:link-icon:.

I basically agree with George, but I wish he had been more forceful. Gen 1-2 is an ancient origins account. Typical of these in the ancient world, origins is De Novo (quick and complete). The ancients saw a cow give birth to a cow, give birth to a cow, etc; and they logically extended this phenomenological experience to an original cow [termed "retrojection" It's what we do in geology]. Similarly, a human gives birth to a human, who gives birth to a human, etc, Ergo, who is Adam? Ancient science. He never existed.

Therefore, if Adam never existed, then he never sinned. And if he never sinned, then his sin was never passed down to us from him. End of story.

So what’s happening? The Holy Spirit is accommodating. NOT LYING, BUT ACCOMMODATING. Therefore, don’t go to Gen 1-3 to find out how the world was created, or how human history began — it’s not there.

What we must do is separate (not conflate as most through history and today have done) the Holy Spirit inspired Message of faith (inerrant & infallible) from the INCIDENTAL ancient origins science (the science-of-the-day). In the case of Gen 1-3, Adam is an ancient vessel that transports the spiritual Truths: humans are created in the Image of God, humans are sinful, and God judges us for our sins. Worrying about where Adam fits in the paleontological record makes about as much sense as trying to figure out where in the firmament NASA sends its spacecraft.

There’s more than just what I’ve excerpted, but I’ve always thought that this hermeneutical analysis of Denis’ has always been the important starting point for dialogues with those who take an anti-evolutionary, hyper-literalist interpretation of the Bible, especially concerning the Book of Genesis and Adam and Eve.

At any rate, read the whole thing:link-icon:, good Reader. And maybe check out some of the other articles in the ongoing dialogue:link-icon: as well.

Hmmn…that’s twice today I’ve found a reason to link to Denis’ new book:amazon: on Amazon.com.

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