Comment by geye1234
2 years ago
> Augustine, since you're apparently a fan, was pretty confident that the problem of pestilence was the product of a literally occurring Fall involving two actual First People, which doesn't square very well with evolutionary biology.
My understanding is that the current hypothesis says we are, in fact, all descended from one couple. I could be wrong about that though.
In any case, there's no contradiction between Original Sin, and germs and immunity and the like, as explanations for disease. See my previous comment.
I'm not sure about this current hypothesis about the first man and the woman who evolved from his rib before their apple consumption caused pain receptors to evolve, pathogens to acquire pathogenicity and reproduction to require sinful lust. Were they Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens or Tyrannosaurus Rex? :-)
This is a specific example of the general point we are discussing in the other thread, so it would be better to focus on that, unless you think strongly otherwise.