[VRWC_minion]

but the REALITY of the SPECIFIC event used is IRRELEVANT to the story narrated.

But if the scripture is God inspired, the easier path is for God to create a metaphor rooted in fact. The author might play with time seeing that he is unbound by time. To assume that the events described are untrue in nature because the primary purpose is to teach by analogy or metaphor is a mistake in my opinion.

In the case of the snake, its interesting that the bible describes a land creature becoming a snake when its possible that a sea creature could have evolved so. Especially when we think of legs as being a positive adaption.

[ZULU]

"But if the scripture is God inspired, the easier path is for God to create a metaphor rooted in fact. The author might play with time seeing that he is unbound by time. To assume that the events described are untrue in nature because the primary purpose is to teach by analogy or metaphor is a mistake in my opinion."

Ahh, but in this response, you are drawing a personal opinion.

Again, as I said, are serpents wise?? Are Doves innocent??

The average snake have a brain not bigger than a pea, and judging from certain habits of pigeons who roost on buildings, I don't think they are innocent.

"In the case of the snake, its interesting that the bible describes a land creature becoming a snake when its possible that a sea creature could have evolved so. Especially when we think of legs as being a positive adaption."

I don't dispute that snake originally had legs. What I quetion is a literal interpretation of Genesis to indicate that snakes are evil and have no limbs becasue God cursed them. Its not beyond reason for even an uneducated primitive shepherd to look at a snake, see it has no legs, notice that all other animals do, and assume that at one point ti had them. Biological studies do not dispute that snakes evolved from legless lizards.

For a very long time however, biologists have believed that snakes were somehow related to monitor lizards. They have similar tongues and have elongated bodies and the monitors are related to the mosasaurs, gignatic extinct swimming reptiles which had elongated bodies and paddle-shaped limbs and lived during the Cretaceous period - the time of the Dinosaurs.

The Monitors and the Snakes COULD have had a common ancestor among earlier lizards, or they coul dhave evolved independently from differnt lizard lines. This study seems to imply the latter.