I hate it when I miss a consistent deadline that I have set for posting these links, especially when I miss it by a couple of days. So apologies again, but here’s some interesting information from around the Web.

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This first story I stumbled upon after seeing a Christianity Today post on Twitter. The article, which is pretty long, is titled The Search for the Historical Adam. It’s basically a look at the tension between science/archaeology and the Biblical account of Adam and Eve.

The most impressive thing about the article is that it really doesn’t take sides. It lays out the arguments from traditional evangelicals as well as from Christian intellectuals who balance evolution and the Bible.

The debate centers around new evidence from the human genome that keeps pushing the evolutionary envelope and introducing more and more scientific evidence. This evidence appears to make a literal Adam and Eve as the first humans more and more implausible.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“So, is the Adam and Eve question destined to become a groundbreaking science-and-Scripture dispute, a 21st-century equivalent of the once disturbing proof that the Earth orbits the sun? The potential is certainly there: the emerging science could be seen to challenge not only what Genesis records about the creation of humanity but the species’s unique status as bearing the “image of God,” Christian doctrine on original sin and the Fall, the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, and, perhaps most significantly, Paul’s teaching that links the historical Adam with redemption through Christ (Rom. 5:12-19; 1 Cor. 15:20-23, 42-49; and his speech in Acts 17).”

That’s just a sample. The article gets pretty in-depth and presents a lot of questions. I definitely recommend it not only for evangelicals but also for non-believers who might want to grasp a better understanding of where Christians come from when they argue against evolution.

Christianity Today also posted a follow-up editorial, this one taking a decidedly evangelical perspective. I encourage you to read this one as well, but here’s the summary:

“At this juncture, we counsel patience. We don’t need another fundamentalist reaction against science. We need instead a positive interdisciplinary engagement that recognizes the good will of all involved and that creative thinking takes time. In the long run, it may be the humility of our scholars as much as their technical expertise that will bring us to deeper knowledge of the truth.”

Other Links

• I know it seems like the hell debate is never-ending at this point, but there’s another interesting twist coming up. Popular author Francis Chan has a book coming out this summer addressing many of the points that Rob Bell brought up in his recent book, Love Wins. Here’s a Q&A that previews the book from Relevant Magazine.
• Major props to my former colleague at The Ledger, Cary McMullen, for continuing his religious commentary on his new blog, What I Have Written. His most recent post looks at the life and recent death of Jack Kevorkian. I encourage you to read it and to keep Cary’s blog in your bookmarks or favorites. He rarely disappoints.