Why I'm Catholic (Sola Scriptura leads atheist to Catholic Church)

1)The correct vocalization and punctuation of the written Torah is transmitted by the Oral Tradition. The correct interpretation is also transmitted by that exact same tradition. And that tradition is that Adam and Eve are the parents of all living human beings without exception.

In rejecting this you are not only rejecting Jewish Tradition but your Pope Pius XII as well, who specifically ruled against polygenism in Humani Generis. By rejecting the teaching of a Pope in the name of "superior scientific knowledge" you are basically admitting that no doctrine that can be "disproved" by science is beyond the pale.

Getting hold of an English translation of Rabbi Rotenberg's The Eternal People or even Bible Basics (available from Feldheim Publishers) would straighten all this out for you.

May G-d send you a refu'ah shelemah.

Yes, I know there is a lot of oral tradition about "proper" interpretation of Genesis & yes, I know the tradition is that Adam & Eve are the parents of all humans. I know my beliefs are heretical to most Christian sects, including the Roman Catholic Church. Since I'm not a Roman Catholic, I'm not forced to try to force myself to believe anything any of their popes have taught must be believed.

I'll look into the publications you recommend.

My apologies. I assumed you were Roman Catholic because, while most Protestants may have jettisoned total Biblical inerrancy, I assumed that Protestant FReepers had not, and it is an unhappy truth that Catholics and other liturgical chr*stians seem to regard the Bible as almost a threat (hence the need to invoke higher criticism to discredit it, even if such higher criticism was itself the invention of Protestants).

The problem with making the Ha'Adam of Genesis 1-3 into a cipher or metaphor for early humanity is that this "metaphor" is described as living precisely 930 years and begetting children who are then named and traced down to Abraham (and ultimately to Moses). You can't really do that with a "metaphor."

The problem with making the Ha'Adam of Genesis 1-3 into a cipher or metaphor for early humanity is that this "metaphor" is described as living precisely 930 years and begetting children who are then named and traced down to Abraham (and ultimately to Moses). You can't really do that with a "metaphor."

It isn't a cipher or metaphor, but the real history of a people!

I don't know why, but you're missing my point. "Adam" was not "a people." He was an individual who lived 930 years and fathered specific individual children who are named, and whose children are named in turn.

While Genesis 1 desribes the creation of mankind, I agree that Adam was an individual, as was Eve. The story of their "births" is in Genesis 2.

Look at the first verse in Genesis 2:

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. All of the host of heaven & earth were created before God rested on the seventh day. If Adam and Eve were the only humans before the seventh day, would they be considered "all of the host" of earth? A host of two?

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Adam was made a *living soul* after he was *formed*. Adam & Eve were the ancestors of those who later became God's chosen people, the (spiritual) lineage of life.

The Bible does not give us a specific number of children & it doesn't name all of them. Adam and Eve had Cain (Genesis 4:1), Abel (Genesis 4:2), Seth (Genesis 4:25), and "many other sons and daughters" (Genesis 5:4).

The Bible says that Seth was born to "replace" Abel. It doesn't say that there was an older sister who went to Nod with Cain & Cain had a wife. Cain's children are named, as are some of his son's wives. Were the wives of Cain's sons Cain's daughters or were they children of Adam & Eve, grandchildren of Adam & Eve through Cain's siblings? Other than Cain, why would any of Adam & Eve's children or grandchildren go out from the face of the Lord. Why would all of them share in Cain's punishment?

HaHaHa...The fella's problem is obvious from the get go...This is his testimony...He never made Jesus his Savior...He figured he could become a Christian intellectually...

I read through the New Testament (eventually reading it cover to cover), and couldn't find much. I kept instinctively flipping to the last page for some sort of answer key.

This usually ended with my Christian acquaintances telling me to let the Holy Spirit guide me (and probably making a mental note to find less annoying friends).

By the guy's own testimony, he is not a Christian...But he's a Catholic tho...

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