This is the story of human creation as given in Genesis (1:26–27), and with the coming of Christianity it was the story that was universally accepted for over 1,500 years. As noted in the first chapter, St. Augustine cautioned that one must be careful with demands that the Bible be interpreted literally. The story of human origins as given in Genesis shows the need of such a policy, for in the second chapter we get a rather different account, where woman is created as something of an afterthought to keep man happy and busy.

The word from people like St. Augustine was that Christians should not spend their time trying desperately to reconcile texts like this but rather to spend time understanding the metaphorical or allegorical meanings that lie behind the words. The same is true when the text seems to conflict with up-to-date understanding in science and philosophy. The Bible was not written as a source of empirical information, but about God, humans, and their relationship. This does not mean that anyone doubted the Adam and Eve story – and there were of course good theological reasons for taking it fairly literally – but it does mean that the Christian tradition had within it the tools to work with science as and when the facts and theory demanded.