>Weren't these the same possibilities that you and Dick Fischer debated last
>spring? As I understand it, adam (with a small a) can be moved back in time
>with no problems.
Only partly. We mostly debated the mesopotamian flood concept.
>That scenario is supported by the first chapter of
>Genesis--humans made in the image of God, to have dominion over the earth.
> Human beings gradually acquired the image of God and gained dominion as
>represented by the wonderful list of technological accomplishments of fossil
>man that you posted on May 25.
I have theological difficulty with this because, while there are some verses
which can be construed in the fashion you suggest, it is the problem of
Adam's sin applying to all mankind that bothers me. I feel much better if
Adam was the progenitor of all.
>I am aware that this view is not without its difficulties, as found, for
>instance, in the first few verses of Genesis 5. I know of no view of human
>origins, however, that does not either ignore or bend either Scripture or
>science to a greater or lesser extent. Moving Adam back in time, as you do,
>ignores the plain scriptural inference, that has been shown by Dick F., that
>historical Adam was created into a world already populated with people.
I respect Dick's position very much. But I don't agree with it. I worry
about the problem that only semites were capable of having a relationship
with God. While my wife, a semite, might like this, I, a non-semite, don't.
>
>Let me add to these comments a ton of thanks for the service you have done
>for us all with your research on how human the fossil humans really were. It
>has been like attending an ongoing seminar on the humanity of early humans.
> There is no way I could have mustered all the references that you have given
>us. Thanks much.
My pleasure. Whatever position someone takes, I simply want the
observational data to be correct. While we all have our biases, and
preferred positions, we still must live in the world as it exists, not as we
wish it to exist.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm