Rom 5:19 For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.

According to the Bible, he does. This doctrine is called the agency of Adam. A brief explanation may be in order:

The Bible tells us that "all have sinned" (Rom. 3:23). It is a pillar of Christian teaching that every last human being has or will succumb to temptation and sin. Now, if something is 100% certain in the entire human population, past, present and future, one cannot say that individuals within the population have any choice in the matter. In essence, you cannot not sin. You do not have the power not to sin.

But this was not always the case. In Adam's case, he did have a choice. He did have the power not to sin. As we all know, the dweeb chose to sin.

Now, since Adam chose to sin, he and the rest of humanity lost that power. That's right. You and I and everyone else became sinners.

So if you feel that it is unfair of God to punish you for doing what you have no possibility of avoiding, you must understand that Adam was your representative, your agent. And as any watcher of Judge Judy knows, you are liable for the actions of your agent.

For example, if you hire a tree guy to take down the pine tree in your front yard, and said tree guy messes up the operation and brings said tree down upon your neighbor's new Jag, well, you are responsible. (Of course you can sue the tree guy, but the neighbor will come after you.) Because the tree guy was acting as your agent.

But, you say, I hired the tree guy! I never asked Adam to represent me! Well, that's too bad, because God chose Adam to represent you. Doesn't matter what you wanted. It's just the way it is.

How do you feel about that? Once again we come to the might makes right argument, the one that shuts us up but good. As Paul said (and I paraphrase): Who the hell are you to talk back to God?

But many Christians will then say, yes, but God also made Jesus your agent. He didn't sin, and you can switch reps and be a non-sinner. Potentially. Only if you do everything he says.

So, Adam you got whether you want him or not. To get Jesus, you'll have to do some major sucking up.

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After Adam and Eve provoked God to the extent that he cursed all of humanity (the same humanity that he designed and built, mind you), and booted the silly, sinning couple out of Eden, the scriptures say this:

So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen. 3:23-24)

So God evicted them without notice and put security guard cherubs, armed with a sword-flambe, at the entrance just in case they tried to sneak back in.

Then humanity goes about its business.

So what happened to the Garden? With Google Earth around, should we be able to see it?

Of course literalistic Christians will say that just because God didn't tell us how he got rid of it doesn't mean he didn't. Or better yet, they'll opine that God has the power to hide it from our satellites if he chooses. Yes, yes, but explanations that make such frequent use of God's alleged superpowers ring hollow. Much simpler and more rational to conclude that the thing never existed in the first place, don't you think?

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NewScientist - May 28, 2009, by Amanda Gefter

The Discovery Institute – the Seattle-based headquarters of the intelligent design movement – has just launched a new website, Faith and Evolution, which asks, can one be a Christian and accept evolution? The answer, as far as the Discovery Institute is concerned, is a resounding: No.

The new website appears to be a response to the recent launch of the BioLogos Foundation, the brainchild of geneticist Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project and rumoured Obama appointee-to-be for head of the National Institutes of Health. Along with "a team of scientists who believe in God" and some cash from the Templeton Foundation, Collins, an evangelical Christian who is also a staunch proponent of evolution, is on a crusade to convince believers that faith and science need not be at odds. He is promoting "theistic evolution" – the belief that God (the prayer-listening, proactive, personal God of Christianity) chose to create life by way of evolution.

It sounds like a nice idea, but to my mind any time you try to reconcile science and religion by rejecting Stephen Jay Gould's notion of "non-overlapping magisteria" and instead try shoehorning them into a single worldview, something suffers. My concern is that science will take the hit – and Collins's speculative arguments about divine intervention via quantum uncertainty seem dangerously poised for the punch. The Discovery Institute's concern, on the other hand, is that Christianity will take the hit. "For Christians," they write on their website, "mainstream theistic evolution raises challenges to traditional doctrines about God's providence, the Fall and the detectability of God's design in nature." For them, reconciling evolution and religious faith is simply a hopeless endeavour.

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There's a particular time of the week when a sizable chunk of the population just kind of,,, disappears. The breakfast eateries have no lines. The grocery store aisles are clear. Traffic on the streets is almost post-apocalyptic. Peace and quiet and ease of travel abound. Just like in the classic, Omega Man, when Charlton Heston found himself alone in the world. Ah, the joys of a Sunday morning!

Sure, many of us like to use these Sunday hours to chip away at our sleep deficit, but even after getting up late, it can be a sweet pleasure to experience the world with a large percentage of our fellow travelers safely out of the way in their churches. Try it sometime.

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