The heavy blows science deals out to religion damages this first book of the Bible more than most any other.  Every time science seems to land what appears to be a knock-out punch against the myths of Genesis, the faithful find a way of re-interpreting their beliefs to soften the blow.  The Christian religions are dazed over just what to make of Genesis, especially the stories of the creation and the flood.   Jews and Muslims don’t take the creation story literally, so they’ve had no problems with science crushing it.  The book of Genesis tells us that God created heaven and the earth, in six days, about 6000-10,000 years ago.  Up until the last few hundred years, all Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths thought this time-table was quite reasonable and the stories absolutely true.  Adam and Eve actually strolled around a beautiful garden, not that many years ago.  No question about it. Jesus, Mohammed, and Abraham are not ever reported to have disagreed with this notion.  But then came Darwin and things changed.  The evidence that the earth evolved over billions of years, and humans evolved over millions of years from primate ancestors in Africa is overwhelming.    Currently, almost no faiths officially maintain a literal interpretation of Genesis.  No reasonable argument can be made for one.  Science put an end to a need for the Creator.  “To put it bluntly but fairly, anyone today who doubts that the variety of life on this planet was produced by a process of evolution is simply ignorant—inexcusably ignorant.”[1]  Even Pope John Paul II declared that evolution should be studied and it is “more than a hypothesis.”[2]  Intellectually, most religions downplay the significance of Genesis, but unofficially, the Adam and Eve story is alive and well.  Ignorance is an unfair characterization though.  Its not ignorance that perpetuates Genesis but rather it is a life-time of religious indoctrination, socials pressures, insecurities, and miss-information.  As unbelievable as the Genesis story is, it is also very necessary to Christianity.   The Apostle Paul framed the fundamental basis of the Christian faith around Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross.  Jesus was sacrificed to atone for Adam’s original sin.  If there is no Garden of Eden or no real person named Adam, then Paul’s explanation for why Jesus died falls apart.  Regardless of the facts, Christians can’t ever dismiss Genesis.

This is only a short summary of this chapter.  To find out more, please read Why Adam and Eve Created God.