A casual poll

[clbndlf]

I've been curious for a while about something, so I thought I'd take a poll. Please answer:

a. To what degree do you take the events of Genesis 1-3 (the creation, the "fall of man") literally? There is a spectrum from completely literal to completely allegorical: Let me know where you stand. Feel free to explain a little. Or if you take some parts literally and others allegorically, explain.
b. To what denomination (if any) do you belong?

 

[wordmagnifiedabovenames]

I'm at both ends of the spectrum simultaneously. I believe it literally insofar as there really was a place called Eden, a man called Adam, a woman that was made from his rib etc. I also believe it allegorically, insofar as there were types and symbols set up there, which may be a bit controversial, but I'll list some anyway;
6000 years of creation+1000 years of rest > 6000 years for redemption+millennial reign
The woman looking at the fruit she wasn't supposed to eat and finding it "good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise" was an actual event, and lines up with 1 John 2:16 (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life)
God cursning the ground was an actual event, and the thorns being part of that curse > Jesus being crowned with thorns, indicating He dealt with sin all the way back to Adam
God sacrificed an animal for the sin of Adam and the woman was an actual event > God sent Jesus for the sin of the world

Re "the fall of man," I'd say that man didn't fall; he jumped.

 

[Katzpur]

I've been curious for a while about something, so I thought I'd take a poll. Please answer:

a. To what degree do you take the events of Genesis 1-3 (the creation, the "fall of man") literally? There is a spectrum from completely literal to completely allegorical: Let me know where you stand. Feel free to explain a little. Or if you take some parts literally and others allegorically, explain.

I believe that Adam and Eve were real individuals but that they were not the first homo-sapiens to have existed. I see them as being different in some pretty significant way to the men and women who had existed prior to them -- probably in that they had what I would characterize as a "human" spirit. I see them as having been created in God's image, unlike their predecessors. As far as the events surrounding Adam's "Fall" are concerned, I believe the story is allegorical to a large extent, but that actual events are in some way described in such a way as to simplify what really happened. (I don't believe in talking snakes, for instance.) From my perspective, Adam's and Eve's decision to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was a good thing, and part of God's plan to get His Plan rolling.

I realize that I've been kind of brief, but we'll see where the conversation goes from here. I can elaborate if necessary.

b. To what denomination (if any) do you belong?

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In other words, I'm LDS, or "Mormon."