Bible Studies, Inspired by Faith and Science

The Beginning: Adam and Eve 1. Did God make plants before people or people before plants? 2. Did God make man before woman or woman before man? 3. What did the first human beings eat? 4. Where was the Garden of Eden? 5. What did God tell Adam and Eve not to eat? 6. How many children did Adam and Eve have? 7. Where did Adam and Eve live after they were thrown out of Eden? 8. Why did Cain kill Abel? 9. What happened to the surviving brother? 10. Where did civilization begin? For some people, the Bible story of creation is “just a myth.” For others, it proves evolution doesn’t exist. And for others, myself included, the remarkable agreement between Genesis and the discoveries of modern science (as opposed to traditions of ancient belief) make it hard not to believe in God. After all, how could people more than 3,000 years ago (a very conservative estimate) ever have guessed that plants evolved before fish and birds before mammals before man? In the beginning, there was light,...

Lesson 2: The First Human Beings: Genesis 2-3 What if… faith and science agreed that there really was an Eden? Adam and Eve: What if… Adam and Eve were two people chosen from the crowd? One man. One woman: Genesis 1 ends with the creation of human beings. “Male and female He created them,” is says, implying more than one person, and certainly not discounting the possibility of more than two. But Genesis 2 starts with one man, Adam, in the garden, and begs the question: Was he the only “man?” What if he was the only man tested by God? What if there were other “people,” but their generations would die out in time, and only Adam’s descendants would survive? Would that contradict Genesis 1 and 2, or could it be valid, if unconventional, interpretation? And which matters more, the interpretation, or continuing to read the word? Richard Dawkins describes research that shows all humanity to be descended from a single woman who probably lived in Africa. She would have been one member of a ne...