It's finals time, which means lots of procrastination, which means lots of catching up on blog-reading! I wanted to share a recent post from Slacktivist, regarding evolution and ultimately the way many inerrantists brandish scripture as a weapon. He provides a great explanation of why a literal reading of Genesis--and thus a literal Adam and Eve--does not make sense.
A literal reading requires a literate reader. A literate reader is one who is able not only to discern what a text says, but what kind of text it is. A person might be able to pronounce and define every word they're reading in the phone book, but if they are not able to discern the difference between that phone book and a collection of sonnets then we really cannot consider them literate. A reader who cannot tell the difference between such things or why it matters is a reader who will not be able to apprehend any text, literally or otherwise.
And the text of the early chapters of Genesis is not a text that requires or asks or even really allows for the reader to interpret it as speaking of a "historical" Adam and Eve. Insisting on a belief in a "historical" Adam and Eve is like insisting on a historical rainbow crow or a historical Dives.
He also explains why literalists insist on only their interpretation of scripture, or rather, their "tidy little domesticated propositions":
The bizarre young-earth creationist reading of Genesis is not suggested by the text, it is a reading brought to and imposed upon that text -- a reading predetermined by the use to which such readers seek to put scripture. They regard scripture as a weapon, as a tool to be used to prove others wrong, thereby forcing those others to submit.
[...]
If you can't control the text, you won't be able to use that text to control others. That means stories must be turned into facts, psalms into proverbs, prophecy into augury, parables into epigrams. Everything must be reduced to bullet points that will fit into your gun.
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