How can I die because of the sin of a Myth, as you have insinuated about that story, and Eden, and Serpent, etc.?
I don't need salvation from a myth. I just need a rewrite. :>)
At some point, either human beings were always fallen or became fallen. People who deny archaeological evidence might as well deny medical science or any science they so fervently believe in when it comes to making their lives more comfortable or when using biblical search engines.
It's only when science "refuses" to verify what the Bible says that science becomes ridiculed, "bad," "unreliable," even "stupid."
I wonder if you ever read Genesis 9. In it, God makes his covenant with Noah, his sons, and every living creature (birds, fish, etc.) who were with him (v. 8-11). God makes covenant with animals? (but much later only with Israel)
In verse 12, God says that this covenant he made is for all generations to come. Yet we know that, after Moses was long dead and gone, God announced a new covenant because—get this—the disbelieving Israelites corrupted the first one! What happened? God didn't "know" they would when he made his first covenant?
And since the first covenant promised "no more floods to destroy the earth," God "tied" a (rain)bow in the clouds to "remind" himself of that promise (v. 13-16)! Apparently, if the Bible is to believed literally, there were no rainbows before the first covenant! The sunlight did not separate into colors when passing through denser media! The physics of the world were not yet "fully developed" I suppose!
With all due respect, taken literally, this is ridiculous and untrue. Maybe you can read this uncritically and accept it as "fact," but I can't. A God who has to tie a bow in order to remember, and the assertion that rainbows did not exist (never mind the reason why they exist) is just a little "above" my level of acceptable pretense.
Now, does this challenge one's beliefs? Of course it does. It doesn't mean that one cannot understand this allegorically and realize that this is how the writer could best describe God's revelation for the people of that time to believe.
But, if the only "true" believers are those who read the Bible literally, then I suppose I am not a believer.
This is where the forbidden pomegranates come in.