[Campion]

Sorry, I don’t see your “simple” conclusion. But if Genesis is to be taken completely literally, the universe is about 6,500 years old, meaning either (a) huge chunks of science are completely wrong; or (b) God is an elaborate hoaxer who built a universe that lies to us. Neither conclusion is very compatible with faith.

[P-Marlowe]

Do apes and chimpanzees sin?

The Christian religion is built upon the fact that God CREATED Adam and that Adam sinned against God and the curse of that sin (Death) was placed upon all men. Christ came to redeem man from that sin and to give Eternal Life.

Therefore, if Adam was not a singular unique creation of God in the image of God, then Christ was a charlatan and Christianity is a fraud.

If you believe man evolved then what is the purpose of your belief in Christ?

[P-Marlowe]

I find it fascinating that Catholics who believe that through the power of the words of a Priest that a wafer can (in contravention of all the laws of Science) be instantaneously made into the literal flesh of Jesus Christ, cannot accept the fact that the body and flesh of Adam was created from dust by the Word of God.

[LearnsFromMistakes]

Mi> But if Genesis is to be taken completely literally, the universe is about 6,500 years old

In a complete literal interpretation, how old was Eve when she had a son? My answer - we have no clue. Was there a gap between 'in the beginning God created' and 'the earth was formless and void'. 'Formless and void' - what kind of creation was that? We don't know, we can't know. I guess we can make bad assumptions...or trust God.

[Springfield Reformer]

Sorry, I don’t see your “simple” conclusion. But if Genesis is to be taken completely literally, the universe is about 6,500 years old, meaning either (a) huge chunks of science are completely wrong; or (b) God is an elaborate hoaxer who built a universe that lies to us. Neither conclusion is very compatible with faith.

Except that created things can only tell the truth they know.  Inanimate objects  don't "know" anything.  They just are what they are. The only one who would actually know how creation occurred would be the Creator.  If He created everything with, as Augustine suggests, rational principles of continuous operation, why is that incompatible with those same objects supernaturally coming into being ready-made with those principles? There is no lie in that. It's simply a model for design.  

For example, Jesus turned water into wine, a process that ordinarily takes significant amounts of time.  Does that make the wine a liar? No. But it does point us back to the Creator.  Do we believe Him when He tells us He made this wine just minutes ago? If we have the divine grant of faith, this is not a problem. And not only that, but the cause of a positive worship, to see His great power at work is a joy to every believing heart.  But if we are told incessantly, from childhood, that no such manufacture of instant wine is possible, with no exception made for God, and if we have a doubting heart, we may choose to believe the fallible creation babbling on about things they don't understand, rather than believe our Creator that He took ordinary water and in moments gave it the fullness of a long-established life.  

So nature cannot lie.  It simply is.  It can have no "intent to deceive," without which a lie is morally impossible.  And we know that the Creator did not lie, first because it is impossible for God to lie, and second because we have Him on record in Scripture telling us exactly what He did. So we have no excuse. Our only real problem is choosing who to believe, either our mortal, fallible, sinful teachers, or Him, the One who was there when it happened, the One into whose hands we have entrusted our immortal souls.  For me, this is a no brainer ...

Peace,

SR