I asked some Idiot America morons: "If Genesis is not true, then why should anyone believe in Jeebus?"

One of the most ridiculous answers:

"If Genesis is not true, then why should anyone believe in Jeebus?"

Exactly! As says 1Cor.15:13-19: 'If Christ has not been raised up, our preaching is certainly in vain, and our faith is also in vain. We are also found to be false witnesses of God, our faith is useless; we remain in our sins. Then we are to be pitied more than anyone.'

But of course this isn't the case because everything that is written in the scriptures is for our instruction. (Rom.15:4) The Genesis account speaks of the garden as a real place. Two of the four rivers mentioned in the account​—the Euphrates & the Tigris, or Hiddekel flow today, some of their source waters are very close together. The account even names the lands through which those rivers flowed & specifies the natural resources well-known in the area. *A serpent that talks seems to be unrealistic. We know that animals don't talk but a powerful spirit person can make an animal appear to speak when magic or spiritism is practiced. Even humans can perform tricks of ventriloquism & create convincing special effects.

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This was written by a normal person:

Perhaps they shouldn't. I agree that saying Genesis isn't true cascades into a number of theological problems, up to invalidating the entire message of the gospel.

The most obvious is the concept of the Sabbath. Exodus 20:11 "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy." The Sabbath is clearly set up as a reflection of this creation week. And God purportedly called for the execution of people who didn't observe it.

Another is the issue of death itself. Romans 5:12 claims death entered the world through sin, and sin through man. Of course, I get the motivation for Christians to sweep that under the rug. Most will admit the evidence for things dying before mankind was around is insurmountable. Still, the alternative is problematic for theology. If death is not the result of sin, but just the status quo, then at the minimum we have a creator that intentionally designed death, disease, predators, all manner of suffering, as part of the mechanics, part of the design. "And it was good." Quite a different picture of a creator than the omni-benevolent loving being.

If death is not the result of sin, but just the status quo, then what is the purpose of Jesus to die for the sins of the world restoring us to a condition of eternal life purportedly lost that was never actually there in the first place.

And, again, I get it. It doesn't line up with what we know. But, I don't really understand why that bothers Christians. Perhaps a Christian who rejects the reality of Genesis could explain that. I mean, we're talking about angels, people rising from the dead, casting demons into swine, walking on water, miracle healings for ailments ranging from blindness to actually being dead, man from mud, woman from rib, staves turning to snakes, and countless other items in no way lining up with scientific reality. Why does reality get in the way for Genesis, but not all of these others?

-- Jeremy