Hi Anthony. By lasering-in on certain questions, you have evidently reignited topics that have not been fully covered in past posts. Each of the current responders (in my opinion) has something that thoughtful Christians can profit by, but @Christy (as befits a wordsmith) offers the most concise ‘take-home’ evaluation. What I have to offer will not resonate with so many devout Christians as Christy’'s, but it just possibly might offer another perspective to a Christian who is almost surely sliding into agnosticism. My view results from viewing humankind’s calling as from a God Ahead rather than a God Above, and so it makes the concept of Original Sin more palatable.
Christy gives a much fuller meaning to the word, metaphor., but even so, it seems that Jesus’ death on the cross must have been necessary to redeem humankind from some pretty awful, and real, transgression. Since I believe the evidence that Humankind evolved from animals whose behavior was guided solely by instinct, I must postulate that at some point in that process, instinct was supplanted by conscience. Gen. 1 implies that this may have occurred in one generation, symbolized by Adam & Eve. Modern paleoanthropology supports the transition of early Homo sapiens to modern humans as taking place as a Great Leap Forward (GLF). In accepting this evidence, Richard Dawkins had to admit it went contrary to his treasured dogma: evolution takes place in small steps with No direction.
The GLF is given the strongest support from two lines of evidence: (1) the sudden appearance ~40,000 yrs. ago of magnificent cave art, some of which is richly symbolic; and (2) human burials with ‘grave goods’–valuable ornaments and tools for an after life. It is tempting to associate these with the onset of humans with Spirit, creatures that could distinguish right from wrong (the metaphorical Tree in Genesis).
One would have to discount science completely to maintain that no physical death occurred before humankind (A&E) sinned. As for the hardship of eking out a living under harsh conditions (by the sweat of your brow), there is no scientific evidence to support that this was not always so. But it is interesting to note that modern day hunter gatherer societies have more leisure time available than the primitive agriculturists. That phrase in Genesis might just be a longing for ‘the good old days’.
I see a way that eliminates this problem. Early Homo sapiens (200,000 BC to ~50,000 BC) had essentially the same genome as we moderns do, and the same sized brain. The change that made us what Genesis calls ‘images of God’ is something like a ‘programming’ of that large ‘latent supercomputer’–our cerebral cortex. In my worldview, that enables us to appreciate the marvels of our God (and thus worship him more fully), but also respond to his offer to forego the selfishness of evolutionary instinct and become co-creators with him as the God drawing us Ahead. Refusing that offer is Sin.
Surely humans, as ‘broken’ as they are, cannot be considered as ‘goals’. Our Biological evolution into a superior species may be too slow, but our Noospheric evolution may accomplish it through something like CRIPSR-Cas9.
Just exactly how this fits in with what I learned in parochial school–that after a well-lived life, your soul will abide forever in Heaven–I admit I don’t know. All I can hope for is to know my Creator better and thus love him more than I can in this life. At the age of 93, it should not be long before I find out if my hopes are fulfilled.
Al Leo