What didn't Adam and Eve have that everyone else in the world has?

Two thousand years ago, for a Jew to believe in Adam and Eve was perfectly sensible. But time moves on and with it our understanding of the world around us, and old beliefs have to give way to new ones. Aristotle thought that some people were born to be slaves.

He was wrong. St. Paul thought we are descended from Adam and Eve. He was wrong.

Not everyone is happy with this conclusion. At Calvin College in Michigan, two very eminent professors -- deeply sincere Christians -- are in very hot water with their president for doubting the historical veracity of the early chapters of Genesis. But whatever the outcome of the president's bullying, apart from the fact that already he is making one of the best liberal arts colleges in America seem ludicrously out of step with science, it is they who are on the side of the angels not he.

What should be the attitude of the Christian faced with clear evidence that some part of the Bible cannot be taken literally and that this must have consequences for hitherto-accepted theology? Clearly, some alternative theology must be sought.