On Fri, 12 Jul 1996 21:56:42, Glenn Morton wrote:
SJ>The diference between Pearce and I is that I am
>prepared to say that the genus Homo (eg. H. habilis, H. erectus, H.
>neanderthalis) had an emerging image of God.
GM>Are you now saying that the image of God EVOLVED?
SJ>No. I am saying that God progressively created it! :-)
GM>Can you show that to me in the Bible? The only place anything is
>said about the image of God is Gen. 1. Gen. 1 man is in the image
>of God.
I note that others have pointed out to Glenn that "the image of God"
is found (or implied) elesewhere than in "Gen. 1", eg. Gn 5:1; 9:6;
1Cor 11:7; Col 3:10.
GM>In your view that means that H. erectus was in the image of
>God. Since there was only one creatin spoken of, it would appear to
>me that you are adding to the account.
No. As I have already said, it is a "model" to relate the scientific
evidence of an emerging pre-Adamic humanity, with the Biblical
pictures in Genesis 1 and 2. The actual Hebrew words used for "Adam"
in Genesis 1 and 2 support this view. That is, "Adam" in Genesis 1
is a *category* ie. "man" in Genesis 1:26-27, and "Adam" is not
spoken of as an individual until Genesis 2. Even Glenn's view is that
Genesis 1 and 2 are separated by millions of years.
SJ>I am attracted to Leakey's description of the four key stages of
>human development:
GM>Gee, I thought we were talking about the Biblical account. I
>guess you believe that Leakey's account is contained in the
>Scripture.
No. I believe the Biblical and scientific accounts are both
complementary *pictures* of reality:
"In the main, two outlines of man's infancy confront the modern
Christian. The book of Genesis portrays, in a few strokes of the
pen, a creature fashioned from earthly matter, God- breathed and God-
like, whose spiritual history runs from innocence to disobedience and
on into a moral decline which the beginnings of civilization can do
nothing to arrest. The second picture, that of palaeontology, a
mosaic of many fragments, depicts a species fashioned over perhaps a
million years or more into the present human form, showing the
outward characteristics of modern man upwards of twenty thousand
years ago, not only in his bodily structure but in his practice of
making tools, using fire, burying his dead, and, not least, creating
works of art comparable with those of any period. Even at this
remote time the apparent forerunners of our chief racial groups seem
to be distinguishable, 1 and the species had already spread widely
over the world, displacing another type of hominid, 'Neanderthal
Man', whose own relics, rough as they are, indicate that tools, fire
and burial had been in use for long ages before this. On the other
hand, the first known signs of pastoral and agricultural life and,
later, of metal working (e.g. by hammering copper or meteoric iron;
cf. on 4:19- 24) are much more recent, appearing in the Near East,
on present evidence, somewhere between the eighth and fifth millennia
BC at earliest. How the two pictures, biblical and scientific, are
related to each other is not immediately clear, and one should allow
for the provisional nature both of scientific estimates (without
making this a refuge from all unwelcome ideas) and of traditional
interpretations of Scripture. One must also recognize the different
aims and styles of the two approaches: one probing the observable
world, the other revealing chiefly the unobservable, the relation of
God and man. The style of reporting will be drily factual for the
former, but the latter may need the whole range of literary genres to
do it justice, and it is therefore important not to prejudge the
method and intention of these chapters." (Kidner D., "Genesis: An
Introduction and Commentary" Tyndale Press: London, 1967, pp26-27)
God bless.
Steve
-------------------------------------------------------------------
| Stephen E (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ sejones@ibm.net |
| 3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ sjones@iinet.net.au |
| Warwick 6024 ->*_,--\_/ http://www.iinet.net.au/~sjones |
| Perth, West Australia v (My opinions, not my employer's) |
-------------------------------------------------------------------