The first 3 chapters of Genesis

I think you've summed things up pretty neatly. I would just point out one thing, namely, that I (nor I dare say, any other "fundamentalist") would not disagree that God kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden in part to keep them from the Tree of Life. So these verses explain that two reasons God kicked Adam out of the Garden were: to work the ground and to prevent access to the tree of life.However, to claim this as the only, or the main purpose behind Adam's exulsion from the Garden is to deny the plain reading of the prior text which you posted.

Are you willing to stake your life on that?

Let's suppose for a minute that Genesis was a fictional novel written by a writer of fiction - pick whoever you want, Shakespeare, Homer, Mark Twain. How would the genre of writing change how you read the text?When Mark Twain writes about Huck Finn rafting down the mississippi river, do you think to yourself, hmm.. this is a work of fiction, therefore Mark Twain can't be saying that Huck Finn is actually rafting down the mississippi - It must be an allusion to life. What forces that interpretation, whether the text is fiction or historical?

If I lose, and the Bible is untrue, I'll go the same place as everyone elseWhat if you're wrong?

I apologize for digressing - this post is supposed to be about the meaning of the Genesis text.

That would seem to double as both an historical account and a causative explanation.

It might in fact be - if you can read that into the text and if you have evidence that the author intended it that way. None of that changes the first meaning that Huck Finn is actually rafting down the mississippi.You're using a supposed allegorical understanding of the Genesis text to REPLACE the plain meaning of the text.Edited by AdminJar, : fix broke quotebox

Excuse me? Where do you get that? How can what the story claims to be and what the authors intend be different things?