Adam and Eve robots

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Since Adam and Eve were created from scratch as adults they would have been unlike any other humans, who have inherited genes which combined with their nurture and life experience makes them uniquely who they are. God would have had to decide what traits and characteristics Adam and Eve had, such as their physical traits, personality, intelligence, food preferences, temperament, motivation, visual acuity, and so on ad infinitum. If all these things were decided upon their creation, how are they different than a robot? For example God would have had to on a spectrum decide how susceptible to outside influence Eve would be. Wherever on that spectrum she was designed doesn’t matter but God would have had to make that decision. Any comments?
 
I was told Adam and Eve did not literally exist, and Genesis did not literally happen. At least that’s the consensus here?
 
I was told Adam and Eve did not literally exist, and Genesis did not literally happen. At least that’s the consensus here?
No. That’s not the consensus.

The Church teaches that there were two, literal “first true humans.” Are you asking whether their names were really ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’? Or are you asking whether there two first true humans?

Also, it’s not that “Genesis didn’t literally happen” – there are historical narratives in Genesis. When you’re talking about the first few chapters of Genesis, though, it’s time to begin a discussion of whether we have allegories that are teaching truth through a narrative that isn’t necessarily historical.
 
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God would have had to decide what traits and characteristics Adam and Eve had
I think you’re stretching this analysis too far:
personality, food preferences, temperament, motivation
Although they might not have had a childhood or adolescence during which they’d have developed these, they certainly could have begun developing them during their adult lifetimes! So, no… you’re not making a good case for determinism here.
If all these things were decided upon their creation, how are they different than a robot?
In the same way you and I aren’t. We have all the genetic characteristics ‘predetermined’ that they would have, and we have all the ‘developmental’ characteristics they would have developed. So, there’s no difference between them and us, from the perspective of “determinism vs free will.”
For example God would have had to on a spectrum decide how susceptible to outside influence Eve would be. Wherever on that spectrum she was designed doesn’t matter but God would have had to make that decision. Any comments?
No, “susceptibility to outside influence” doesn’t come into play here. In any case, the Church teaches that Adam & Eve had certain preternatural gifts (which they lost in the ‘Fall of Man’ and which we don’t inherit), so they would have had intellects and wills that were stronger than ours. It still comes down to the fact that they chose sin. That’s not something, then, that God determined, but which He left up to them – and us! – to exercise in the use of our conscience and free will.

(Edited to add: I just saw @1neophyte’s post, and I have to agree with him: if your premise is “created as adults”, you’re going beyond what even the Biblical account tells us… 😉 )
 
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I thought the church also taught that evolution IS compatible with creationism correct? That seems to contradict that there were just 2 “true humans” without some kind of evolutionary happening?
 
I thought the church also taught that evolution IS compatible with creationism correct? That seems to contradict that there were just 2 “true humans” without some kind of evolutionary happening?
It is possible to hold to evolution, provided that you don’t hold to certain theories (which would be incompatible with the Deposit of the Faith), such as polygenism or the belief that Adam is representative of a whole group of actual people.

There are ways to construct a narrative that hold to Catholic teaching while at the same time giving a nod to evolution. The key to them, IMHO, is realizing that the Church teaches that there were two first true humans, and not just “two first humans”. 😉
 
No, not true.

"Real History

"The argument is that all of this is real history, it is simply ordered topically rather than chronologically, and the ancient audience of Genesis, it is argued, would have understood it as such.

"Even if Genesis 1 records God’s work in a topical fashion, it still records God’s work—things God really did.

"The Catechism explains that “Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine ‘work,’ concluded by the ‘rest’ of the seventh day” (CCC 337), but “nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator. The world began when God’s word drew it out of nothingness; all existent beings, all of nature, and all human history is rooted in this primordial event, the very genesis by which the world was constituted and time begun” (CCC 338).

“It is impossible to dismiss the events of Genesis 1 as a mere legend. They are accounts of real history, even if they are told in a style of historical writing that Westerners do not typically use.”

"Adam and Eve: Real People

"It is equally impermissible to dismiss the story of Adam and Eve and the fall (Gen. 2–3) as a fiction. A question often raised in this context is whether the human race descended from an original pair of two human beings (a teaching known as monogenism) or a pool of early human couples (a teaching known as polygenism).

"In this regard, Pope Pius XII stated: “When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parents of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now, it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the teaching authority of the Church proposed with regard to original sin which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam in which through generation is passed onto all and is in everyone as his own” (Humani Generis 37).

“The story of the creation and fall of man is a true one, even if not written entirely according to modern literary techniques. The Catechism states, “The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents” (CCC 390).”
 
If all these things were decided upon their creation, how are they different than a robot?

In the same way you and I aren’t. We have all the genetic characteristics ‘predetermined’ that they would have, and we have all the ‘developmental’ characteristics they would have developed. So, there’s no difference between them and us, from the perspective of “determinism vs free will.”
But our genetic characteristics are random. For Adam and Eve God would have to predetermine these things. There was nothing inherited. This is a moot point if you don’t believe Adam and Eve were the literal first people.
 
But our genetic characteristics are random.
No… not random. I don’t ‘randomly’ have brown hair instead of red… I have brown hair because I inherited that characteristic from my ancestors (none of whom had red hair, apparently).
For Adam and Eve God would have to predetermine these things.
Fair enough. Yet, that doesn’t mean that their genes determined their decisions (any more than your genes determine your decisions).
There was nothing inherited. This is a moot point if you don’t believe Adam and Eve were the literal first people.
Fair analysis – unless you say “God chose these two to be the first ‘true humans’”… which puts you back where you started. 😉

Nevertheless, genes do not determine free will decisions.
 
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