Although I believe Christian creationism is bullshit, I do agree with the statements made by creationists like Kent Hovind and Ken Ham, that Genesis underpins a lot of what is said in the latter books of the bible. That if you do not believe in book of genesis, it is very diffcult to be a Christian. That is a reason why I am atheist.
Well, there's more than one way to look at it. At talkorigins.org, for instance, there are quite a few interesting theological asides that address this issue. Adam and Eve need not have been real people who ate from a real tree in a real garden at some specific time in the past in order for the Christian story to have meaning and relevance. In fact, I think Genesis is more relevant when it's
not literal. The Fall of Man is a universal story.
Everyone is Adam and Eve, in effect, as we've all eaten from the tree (i.e. sinned) and isolated ourselves from God (i.e. are living here on Earth). That's pretty much the only way I can see it. Physical death obviously still occurs, so the death that Jesus saves humanity from is another (spiritual) death, which I think works quite well in light of Christian theology.
