For Christians who believe in evolution, I'm slightly curious. Do all humans possess that original sin that Christ sacrifices himself to repent on her behalf? Where did we get it if not from the apple?
The Catholic position (and that held by many Protestants as well) is that Adam and Eve were real people and the first human beings, and that Adam and Eve's temptation by the serpent and subsequent death-causing sin are absolutely real events, even though Adam and Eve's bodies were formed through evolution (even though their souls were created by God, unique to humankind). This is my position, though I attend a congregation which leans more on the young-Earth creationist side, a position I no longer hold.
so (and I'm not being a sarcastic euphoric antitheist here, just genuinely curious) were Adam and Eve two arbitrary early Homo sapiens granted souls and entry into Eden by the benevolence of God, and after being cast out had relations with other early humans ensuring that all descendants (and therefore all modern humans) both had souls and the taint of original sin?
Well, Catholic Answers is pretty emphatic that Adam and Eve were the first human beings and that modern-day humans came from no other lineages other than those two.
Protestants who accept evolution tend to be more open-minded on the monogenism vs polygenism debate because they believe that while humans inherit a sin nature from Adam and Eve, they are not held directly responsible for Adam/Eve's sin. The other issue, as can be seen from Pius's quote, is what demarcates a "true man." I think the crux of the argument is that only those descended from Adam and Eve were true humans, even if others had similar bodies.
