The Big Tent ... and Genealogical Adam!

@Randy,

Thanks for the link to the 12 objections. I’ve heard about this list, but I have never taken the time to really read them. So I’ll treat myself to a religious retreat (mini-retreat) and do it right now. My responses will be in bold.

[1] Adam and Eve were not the first human beings, and perhaps Adam and Eve never even existed.
This is half an issue. Adam & Eve become unquestionable historical persons.
But Adam & Eve would not be the first humans. The first humans, bearing the image of God as described in Genesis 1, were humans produced - - by God Himself - - via Evolutionary forces that he controlled directly and specifically. God was in charge of each step of Evolution, and produced a population of anywhere from 1000 to 100,000 humans, depending on denominational preferences. But these humans did not yet have moral agency. They were ignorant of God’s future instructions to Adam & Eve.
So, as to “half the issue”, Genealogical Adam would hold to the view that being the first humans is not nearly as important as being the first humans fitted with moral agency!

[2] Adam and Eve were born from human parents.
Genealogical Adam allows for the Special Creation of Adam and Eve. No problem here.

[3] God didn’t act directly or specially to create Adam out of dust from the ground.
Genealogical Adam allows for Adam to be specially made out of dust from the ground. Bingo.

[4] God didn’t act directly to create Eve from a rib taken from Adam’s side.
Genealogical Adam (or Genealogical Adam & Eve) allows for God to act directly to create Eve from a rib taken from Adam’s side. Bingo again!

[5] Adam and Eve were never sinless human beings.
The moral status of the Pre-Adamite population becomes moot; the historical Adam & Eve are created and placed in Eden as the moral laboratory of the Lord.

[6] Adam and Eve did not commit the first human sins because human beings were doing morally evil things long before Adam and Eve existed.
Genealogical Adam proposes a Pre-Adamite population of humans who would be, essentially, amoral or non-moral. They were without moral instruction or moral guidance. Evil enters the world via Adam & Eve.

[7] Human death did not begin as a result of Adam’s sin because human beings existed long before Adam and Eve and they were always subject to death.
I think this question borders on ignorance. The Tree of Life, by the Lord’s own testimony, is what gave Adam & Eve their lease on immortality. And by the Lord’s own words, he admits that even with Sin, Adam and Eve could still eat of the Tree of Life. So the premise of [7] is just wrong: Adam & eve were always vulnerable to death, with or without sin.

[8] Not all human beings have descended from Adam and Eve for there were thousands of other human beings on the earth at the time that God chose two of them and called them Adam and Eve.
This is the specific attribute of Genealogical God that catches most people by surprise. Using relatively restrained assumptions regarding Human migration from continent to continent, most Genealogical simulations provide for a given mated pair to co-opt all the humans of Earth within about 2000 years … and this is with random migration. If God took a specific interest, and made sure some boats got driven by storms to specific destinations (which was exactly the early Celtic Church view of God-guided migrations by boat), every human living would be descended from Adam & Eve by the time of the birth of Jesus!

[9] God did not directly act in the natural world to create different kinds of fish, birds, and land animals.
AHHH… easy one… God directed acted in the natural world to create different kinds of animals… but not by Special Creation. He used mutations and natural factors of natural selection to produce each kind of creature, thus providing consistency with God-produced evidence for Evolution. This is analogous to God choosing to create Rain through Miraculous Means vs. through Evaporation and Condensation. If Creationists can rely on the idea that God planned for every Genome of all these Kinds by quick Special Creation, Christian Evolutionists can rely on the idea that God used non-miraculous means to produce these very same kinds. The key difference between this approach and Old Earth Creationism is that the latter typically believes God periodically created new kinds (by Special Creation) and allowed the new kind to experience micro-evolution as adaptations to the environment God placed them.

[10] God did not rest from his work of creation or stop any special creative activity after plants, animals, and human beings appeared on the earth.
I think the interpretation of [10] is rather arguable. Reasons.org says this about this question: “On the sixth day, Adam tends the garden, names all the animals, undergoes divine surgery and marries Eve. These events seem too significant and long to happen in one ordinary day. The seventh day, in contrast to the first six, never closes with an evening and morning. In fact, Psalm 95 and Hebrews 4 indicate that we still live in the seventh day.”

[11] God never created an originally very good natural world—a safe environment, free of thorns, thistles, and other harmful things.
Genealogical Adam allows for Eden and all these features. Even Genesis must admit there are things living outside of Eden, like whales for example.

[12] After Adam and Eve sinned, God did not place any curse on the world that changed the workings of the natural world, making it more hostile to mankind.
Genealogical Adam allows for the curses and the rest … the only difference being the Pre-Adamite population is there for Cain to marry into… and to build a city for … and to offer consistency with God-provided fossil evidence of substantial primate evolution.

Comments and rebuttals encouraged!

[[ P.S. I should point out that Joshua Swamidass no doubt has much better or at least different answers than what I think makes sense to me at this time. ]]